 "Virat Kohli")
Amid rumours about Virat Kohli's place in India's T20 World Cup squad, former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn on Friday, March 15, said that Virat Kohli must score big in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to make sure that he enters coveted tournament feeling confident about his place in the side.
"Extremely important for Kohli to score big this season," Steyn said in a press conference ahead of the announcement of the Star Sports' commentary panel for the IPL 2024.
"Some players have leapfrogged Kohli since he has played any cricket since January and when you take a team to the World Cup, you want the players who have scored runs already in big tournament," Steyn stressed upon why Kohli’s place would be in danger if he didn’t score big in the IPL.
Meanwhile, former India pacer Irfan Pathan said that this season Kohli is expected to better his 2016 IPL performance.
"Kohli would be hungry to score runs given he has been out of action from past few months," Pathan added.
Kohli, 35, did not participate in the India vs England 5-match Test series for personal reasons but is touted to play in the IPL.
However, there have been rumours circulating in social media that BCCI is pressuring the senior men’s selection committee as well as the team management to pick players purely on the winnability factor rather than by looking at what they have done in the past.
What has Virat Kohli done for India in T20 World Cups?
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Kohli, who has 1141 runs in 27 games, is the leading run-score in the history of T20 World Cups. He has been India’s top scorer in the 2014, 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cups. Therefore to discard him altogether from the T20 set-up while Rohit Sharma keeps playing could be a difficult ask for the selectors.
RCB will play the opening encounter of the IPL 2024 against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on March 22.
Virat Kohli stats in Indian Premier League history
| Virat Kohli batting & fielding Stats | |||||||||||||
| YEAR | MAT | NO | RUNS | HS | AVG | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4S | 6S | CT | ST |
| Career | 237 | 34 | 7263 | 113 | 37.25 | 5586 | 130.02 | 7 | 50 | 643 | 234 | 107 | 0 |
| 2023 | 14 | 2 | 639 | 101* | 53.25 | 457 | 139.82 | 2 | 6 | 65 | 16 | 13 | 0 |
| 2022 | 16 | 1 | 341 | 73 | 22.73 | 294 | 115.99 | 0 | 2 | 32 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| 2021 | 15 | 1 | 405 | 72* | 28.92 | 339 | 119.46 | 0 | 3 | 43 | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| 2020 | 15 | 4 | 466 | 90* | 42.36 | 384 | 121.35 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | 14 | 0 | 464 | 100 | 33.14 | 328 | 141.46 | 1 | 2 | 46 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| 2018 | 14 | 3 | 530 | 92* | 48.18 | 381 | 139.1 | 0 | 4 | 52 | 18 | 8 | 0 |
| 2017 | 10 | 0 | 308 | 64 | 30.8 | 252 | 122.22 | 0 | 4 | 23 | 11 | 6 | 0 |
| 2016 | 16 | 4 | 973 | 113 | 81.08 | 640 | 152.03 | 4 | 7 | 83 | 38 | 6 | 0 |
| 2015 | 16 | 5 | 505 | 82* | 45.9 | 386 | 130.82 | 0 | 3 | 35 | 23 | 7 | 0 |
| 2014 | 14 | 1 | 359 | 73 | 27.61 | 294 | 122.1 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| 2013 | 16 | 2 | 634 | 99 | 45.28 | 457 | 138.73 | 0 | 6 | 64 | 22 | 7 | 0 |
| 2012 | 16 | 2 | 364 | 73* | 28 | 326 | 111.65 | 0 | 2 | 33 | 9 | 7 | 0 |
| 2011 | 16 | 4 | 557 | 71 | 46.41 | 460 | 121.08 | 0 | 4 | 55 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| 2010 | 16 | 2 | 307 | 58 | 27.9 | 212 | 144.81 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| 2009 | 16 | 2 | 246 | 50 | 22.36 | 219 | 112.32 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| 2008 | 13 | 1 | 165 | 38 | 15 | 157 | 105.09 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
