"Like the best cricket acadamy in the world"- GT star opens up on conversation with Virat Kohli during IPL

England batting mainstay Jos Buttler has talked about the advice he received from former India captain Virat Kohli when he was finding it hard to score runs in IPL 2023. The 34-year-old said he approached Kohli to seek advice on how to manage expectations after an excellent season in 2022, where he made 863 runs in 17 matches.

Buttler said that Kohli told him to accept the 2022 season as his best-ever campaign and not put too much pressure on himself to replicate it in IPL 2023.

Speaking to former England pacer Stuart Broad on the For The Love Of Cricket podcast, Buttler said:

"I had that one season in 2022 where I scored 860 runs. But he's (Kohli) got the record for the most number of runs in a season (973 runs in 2016), which is phenomenal. I actually found the next season quite difficult because I was like, how do I live up to that? We were training at the same time as RCB. I have played against Virat a lot, huge competitor on the field and sort of feel like, he has aggro with everyone."

"I just thought I am going to ask him a couple of questions. He had just finished batting. I thought why not go over and ask him. The question, sort of, was about how do you manage expectations? There is more expectation on him than anyone in world cricket. one-and-a-half billion people, all wanting to see you score runs. "

"He was so generous with his time, so helpful about maybe that was just that one season where it is the best season you ever had and you just have to say and accept that. Don't try to replicate it and don't try and feel the pressure that is all on your own that you are putting it on. It is okay, life is going to be fine, it is going to work out. I remember coming away from it being so thankful for his time and grateful for his insights and amazed by the knowledge that he had of my own game and sort of what might work."

Reflecting on his experience of meeting and speaking with Kohli, Buttler added that the IPL gives players the opportunity to meet the world's best cricketers.

"I think that is one of the brilliant things about the IPL, getting to rub shoulders, it is like the best cricket academy in the world," Buttler said.

Jos Buttler recalls an experience of playing for Gujarat Titans at Narendra Modi Stadium in IPL 2025

After spending several seasons with the Rajasthan Royals, Buttler joined Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2025. The 34-year-old said he enjoyed the experience of playing for the Shubman Gill-led side. He also recalled an incident where he was surprised by the size of the crowd when his side were playing SunRisers Hyderabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

"Really enjoyed it. It was great actually for me. I had been with Rajasthan Royals for a long time. So going to somewhere new, you are bit unsure of what it is going to be like. But a few familiar faces. Vikram Solanki is the director of cricket there. Someone I have known a bit from over here in England, helped me settle in really well. I think I have played 10 seasons of IPL now, there is a lot of movement around the squad so there is quite a few familiar faces, guys I have played with before at Royals or Mumbai Indians where I had my first two seasons."

"Huge stadium in Ahmedabad. I had quite a cool moment, it was against Sunrisers Hyderabad, just a midweek game, not massively important in the grand scheme of the tournament at that stage. We batted first, we batted well and I was walking in between the overs and probably just after the powerplay, the stands go really far back and I am sort of looking around and I thought, my god this place is full."

"90,000 people watching Gujarat Titans versus Sunrisers Hyderabad on a Thursday night or something for a mid-tournament league game," Buttler said.