“All the people who talk about the strike success and me not playing well are the ones who like to talk about these things. But for me it’s just about winning the match for the team,” Kohli said after the match. “And there’s a reason you’ve been doing it for 15 years — because you’ve been doing it day in (and) day in; you’ve been winning games for your teams.”
Kohli scored 500 runs in an IPL season for the seventh time during his innings against GT. In IPL 2024, he entered the game with a strike rate of 161.62 against fast bowlers and 123.57 against spinners, but was able to improve GT’s spin attack. Kohli scored 61 runs against Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Sai Kishore at a strike rate of 179, his highest against spin in a T20 innings (min. 10 balls) since 2016. Twenty-two of those 60 runs also ended in runs – and a shot he doesn’t regularly use against spin.
“I’m not quite sure if you’ve been in that situation to sit and talk about playing out of the box. I don’t really think it’s the same (as playing there),” Kohli said. “So for me it’s just about doing my job. People can talk about their own ideas and assumptions about the game, but those who have done it day in and day out (and) know what’s going on and it’s kind of muscle memory for me now.”
Despite winning by nine wickets with 24 balls to spare, RCB remain bottom of the points table with three wins and seven losses. However, they have won their last two games having won just one of their first eight.
“Look, we wanted to step up for ourselves and (and) play for some self-respect,” Kohli said. “We can’t go on in a big tournament like we did in the first half, so it’s just about going out and playing the cricket we want.
“If you see with the ball as well, we attack the game a lot more and the bowlers are brave. The fielders are putting their bodies on the line. So that’s the way we want to play our cricket. That’s how we’ve always played and that hasn’t been up to par in the tournament so far, apart from the last two games.
“So yeah, we just want to keep doing the same job and have a good atmosphere in the changing room and for us as cricketers to have a bit of self-respect, (realise) why we’re playing at this level.” and also for the fans who support us so well.”