IPL 2022: 3 reasons why Virat Kohli might bag the Orange Cap

The 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) will feature former Indian skipper Virat Kohli playing as a non-captain for the first time since the 2013 season. While the 33-year-old will once again turn out for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), all eyes will be on his form with the bat, perhaps with increased scrutiny.

Although he has the enviable distinction of being the league's all-time top run-scorer, Kohli hasn't had a great time with the bat in the past two seasons. The opener's strike rate has been a matter of fervent discussion, although his franchise kept faith in him with a whopping INR 15 crore contract.

For fans obsessed with statistics, the murmurs surrounding Kohli's lack of hundreds across formats have only grown. Even if the talismanic batter doesn't make it to three figures during IPL 2022, here are three reasons why Kohli could roar back into form and bag the Orange Cap in the upcoming season.

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#1 Kohli no longer has the burden of IPL captaincy

While he was a fan favourite, Kohli let RCB fans down with no trophies during his time at the helm.

Towards the end of IPL 2021, Kohli announced that he would step down from RCB captaincy after the season, somewhat similar to his announcement regarding the T20I captaincy before the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Now no longer captain in any format of the game, it would be interesting to see how Kohli goes about his game.

Although he has a proud record as Indian captain, both in whites and in the shorter formats, he could not replicate the success with RCB. The barren trophy cabinet asked questions that the star batter could not answer, not even with a record season in 2016. Playing without the pressure of managing player morale, press conferences and team selections would surely allow Kohli to return to his best.

Check out the updated IPL Captains here.

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#2 Kohli has taken time off from cricket

The BCCI afforded Kohli and Rishabh Pant a bio-bubble break during February 2022.

Starting from Kohli's T20I captaincy resignation after an unsuccessful T20 World Cup campaign, Team India has carefully managed the former captain's workload. Not only did Kohli miss the majority of India's home series against New Zealand, but he was also rested for a stretch of four T20Is at home against West Indies and Sri Lanka.

As someone who will be the first name on the sheet wherever he plays, Kohli and the team have chosen to be measured with his workload despite the 33-year-old still being at the peak of physical fitness. It is quite likely that the former RCB skipper will return to his IPL team fit and firing for the 2022 edition.

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#3 Presence of experienced overseas players

Glenn Maxwell's strong 2021 IPL will give Kohli a lot of confidence in 2022.

In the past two seasons, Kohli has taken upon an anchor role to provide the team with some sort of protection against batting collapses. While that has resulted in improved team performances compared to the 2019 season, the former skipper's own strike rate and match-winning ability were casualties of this approach.

The presence of Faf du Plessis, who enters the team after a sensational title-winning season with the Chennai Super Kings and superlative performances in other leagues, will surely boost Kohli's confidence in his own attacking game. In the company of an experienced opener capable of providing early solidity and exploding at the death, Kohli can rediscover his boundary-hitting ability in the powerplay and emerge on top this season.