"Virat Kohli was not Virat Kohli" - Aakash Chopra on RCB's pain points in IPL 2022

Aakash Chopra has picked Virat Kohli's indifferent performances with the bat as one of the "pain points" for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2022.

Kohli aggregated 341 runs at an underwhelming average of 22.73 and a low strike rate of 115.98 in the 16 matches he played in IPL 2022. He scored just two fifties in the tournament and was even dismissed for a duck thrice.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Kohli not being at his prolific best as one of the stumbling blocks for RCB. He explained:

"The pain points were that the top three batters just failed to perform. If you see Virat Kohli's year, Virat Kohli was not Virat Kohli. 16 matches, 341 runs at a strike rate of 115. You might have said it is fine even with 341 runs if the strike rate had been around 140."

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the former RCB skipper had a below-par season considering any yardstick. He elaborated:

"Only two half-centuries, that too against just one side. Other than that, he hasn't scored any runs. He reached 48 once and scored an unbeaten 40-odd in the first match but very ordinary season by his standards and by any standards."

Kohli scored both his half-centuries against the Gujarat Titans (GT). He seemed to be regaining his lost touch when he played an enterprising 73-run knock in RCB's last league phase fixture. However, the 33-year-old couldn't deliver the goods in the knockout games as the team lost in Qualifier 2.

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"If Virat Kohli is not having a gun season, Maxi needs to have an extremely gun season" - Aakash Chopra

Glenn Maxwell scored just one fifty in IPL 2022 [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra pointed out that Glenn Maxwell was also short on runs even though his strike rate was excellent. He observed:

"Glenn Maxwell, on whom you placed a huge bet, 301 runs in 13 matches, it is slightly underperforming but the strike rate is very high, more than 160. He picked up wickets in bowling as well, takes catches as well. But one thing is that if Virat Kohli is not having a gun season, Maxi needs to have an extremely gun season, which didn't happen."

The 44-year-old highlighted that even though Faf du Plessis made decent contributions with the bat, it was not good enough. He said:

"Faf du Plessis - 468 runs in 16 matches. He has the runs, 468 runs are great but this is a team without a single 500-plus score. You might say Gujarat also do not have that but there were three players above 400 there and their main thing was the bowling."

Aakash Chopra concluded by picking Mohammed Siraj not being amongst the wickets and proving extremely expensive as well as another pain point for RCB. The pacer picked up just nine wickets in 15 matches and had an alarmingly high economy rate of 10.07.