Virat Kohli now does more attacking battingImage Credit source: PTI
From the first season of IPL to the 19th season, Virat Kohli has been continuously a part of this league. In all these years, Kohli has worn only the jersey of Royal Challengers Bangalore and has set many records with his bat in the IPL. He has also scored many centuries and half-centuries. However, during this period, he has been under the scanner many times due to his batting style. But in the last 3-4 years, his game has changed completely and now the statistics are also testifying to it.
Virat Kohli has started the IPL 2026 season in a strong manner and has played important innings for the team in almost every match. Runs are coming out of his bat but the speed with which he is doing it has impressed him a lot. Especially for the last two seasons, Virat has adopted this aggressive stance, which has also benefited Bengaluru.
There has been a lot of discussion about the style of former Bengaluru captain Kohli that he is trying to play faster than before. But it is not just about the strike rate of the entire innings, but two such aspects of Kohli’s batting have come to light, which clearly show that in the last 3 to 4 seasons, he has truly changed his style of batting and is ready to take more risks. In this, especially a figure with 10 balls is very interesting.
According to this, Kohli, who often took time to settle in the beginning, no longer does so. He opens for the team and now tries to take maximum advantage of the powerplay. The increase in the strike rate of the first 10 balls of his innings is enough to tell this. In 2022, Kohli’s strike rate in the first 10 balls was only 118, which reached only 126 in 2023. But there has been a strong rise in it in 3 consecutive seasons. It directly became 160 in 2024, while it was 154 in 2025 and now it has become 175 in 2026.
According to the data of Cricviz, there has been a lot of improvement in Kohli’s attacking shots since last 2021. Kohli was playing only 40.6 percent attacking shots in 2021, which increased to 50.3 percent in 2022 and 62.5 percent in 2023. This trend has continued further and in 2024 he has attacked 64.3 percent of the balls but there has been a huge increase in this in the last 2 seasons. In 2025, Kohli’s attacking shot percentage increased to 68 and in 2026 it has become 72.8 percent.
