Despite his sluggish start to the Indian Premier League 2024 season, Virat Kohli is presently the front-runner to win the Orange Cap, which is awarded to the player who scores the most runs.
In Monday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Virat Kohli’s 77 off 49 balls and two catches was a form of redemption. With four balls remaining, RCB defeated the Gujarat Titans in the match. With this impressive performance, Kohli gained ground in the competition for the Orange Cap and the most IPL 2024 runs. With two IPL matches played in 2024, he has amassed 98 runs, leading the pack at this time. With 86 runs in two games and a career best score of 63, Sam Curran of the Punjab Kings is the second-highest run scorer thus far this season. However, Kohli’s IPL season didn’t start off very well.
After taking over two months off to celebrate the birth of his second kid, Virat Kohli made his cricket comeback in the opening match of the 17th Indian Premier League (IPL). In the end, though, the Bengaluru franchise was not greatly assisted by King Kohli’s 20-ball 21 in the first IPL 2024 encounter against the five-time winners and reigning champions, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), led by new CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad. Anuj Rawat, the RCB’s teammate, and Dinesh Karthik combined for a 50-ball 95 partnership that helped them post 173 runs. But with eight balls left, CSK emerged victorious by six wickets in the end.
Indeed, Chennai’s Chepauk (MA Chidambaram Stadium) is not the primary hunting ground of Indian captain Virat Kohli’s RCB team. Before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season began, he had played 12 innings here and scored 362 runs, with his best score of 58 coming from way back in 2013.
Throughout the whole of last year, Kohli hadn’t appeared in a T20 International match. He played in two Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) against Afghanistan in January of this year; in the first, he scored 29 runs, and in the second, he was out of the game after the first delivery. But that shouldn’t have taken anything away from Kohli and his abilities.
Virat Kohli’s IPL record
Kohli scored 639 runs in the Indian Premier League last year, including two hundreds and six fifties. He amassed an average of 95.62 runs per game at the November 2023 ODI World Cup, when India finished as runners-up. Rohit Sharma ended second with 597 runs. Though he has an average of 51.75 in T20Is and a strike rate of 138.15, some people don’t think highly of him as a T20 player. More importantly, everything is possible when Kohli is in the middle.
With just two Test matches played in South Africa and two Twenty20 Internationals played at home against Afghanistan since the ODI World Cup last year, it might take some time for Kohli to get used to the new surroundings. Taking care of a baby can sometimes be a demanding task. However, he will undoubtedly return from his well-earned vacation refreshed and ready to go with the family.
While there are many things to watch in the current IPL season, Kohli’s comeback to cricket will undoubtedly be the topic of conversation. His selection for the ICC T20 World Cup in June will be based on how well he performs in the upcoming months. In addition, there’s the IPL final curse to deal with—RCB has lost the championship three times already. Then there is Kohli the captain, often known as King Kohli, and his ability to motivate his team to make this a season to remember.
