Simon Doull attacks Virat Kohli on-air for prioritising 'personal milestone' days after slamming Babar Azam

Doull wasn't impressed with Kohli's gameplan vs LSG as he savaged the India legend, just a month after attacking Pakistan captain Babar Azam for the same.

Virat Kohli and his love affair with the Chinnaswamy track is secret to none. Amid the loud 'Kohli, Kohli' chants, the former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper stepped in and brutally attacked the Lucknow Super Giants bowlers in the IPL 2023 tie. In fact, he remained the aggressor in his 96-run stand with RCB captain Faf du Plessis en route to which he scored his 46th IPL fifty. But former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull wasn't impressed with Kohli gameplan on Monday as he savaged the India legend, just a month after attacking Pakistan captain Babar Azam for the same.

Virat Kohli; Simon Doull

Smashing three maximums and four boundaries, Kohli was at his ravishing best in front of the home crowd. 34 of his 42 runs in the powerplay of 25 deliveries came from boundaries as RCB amassed 56 runs at the end of the powerplay. In fact, it was his highest score in the powerplay of an IPL game in his career.

An over later, Kohli completed his half-century, his second in the ongoing IPL 2023, after that unbeaten 82 he managed at the same venue a week back against Mumbai Indians. But what concerned Doull, who was on-air during the first innings of the Chinnaswamy game, was Kohli's strike rate post powerplay. He pointed out that while Kohli went all guns blazing in the powerplay, he scored the next eight runs to reach his fifty in 10 balls (Kohli had taken seven balls).

“Virat Kohli started off like a train. He was hammering shots. But from 42 to 40 the took 10 balls. He's concerned about his personal milestone. I don’t think there’s room for that in this game anymore. You’ve just got to keep going especially with wickets in hand at that stage. You’ve got to keep going,” he said.

Earlier last month, during the 2023 Pakistan Super League tournament, Doull had launched a similar attack on Babar, lashing out at him for prioritising his century after the Quetta Gladiators skipper had taken 14 deliveries to complete to reach the milestone from 83 off 46.

“Rather than putting the team first... the last little while, that's all that been happening. Rather than looking for boundaries, still so much firepower to come. Hundreds are brilliant, stats are great, but it has to be team first,” Doull had said during his commentary stint.

Coming back to the RCB vs LSG match, Nicholas Pooran smashed the fastest fifty of the IPL season in 15 balls as Lucknow Super Giants pulled off a stunning chase of 213.

Lucknow needed five off the last six balls after Ayush Badoni was out hit-wicket for 30 in the penultimate over, hitting his stumps while hammering what would have been a six.

Mark Wood and Jaydev Unadkat were dismissed in the final over and Ravi Bishnoi was nearly 'mankaded' from the last ball.

With the scores level and a super over beckoning, number 11 Avesh Khan scampered a bye and threw his helmet in celebration.