Virat Kohli goes for the maximum

Not only is he averaging more sixes, Kohli is hitting them earlier in the innings as well, lifting his strike rate in the process

Only four batters from top tier teams have the distinction of hitting at least 300 fours and 100 sixes in T20I cricket. Virat Kohli averages one six for every three fours, far less than Martin Guptill (one six per 1.78 fours), Rohit Sharma (1.89) and Aaron Finch (2.52). This isn’t surprising though, considering Kohli’s priorities, hitting ground strokes and in the ‘V’. But here’s the twist: 61 of Kohli’s 109 sixes have come since 2019. This year, he averages more than one six per game, something he has achieved only twice before (2014 and 2019) in his 13-year India career. The spike in sixes underpins Kohli’s aggression in a broader context; at a narrower level, it underlines Kohli’s will to take more risk.

Kohli was most prolific in 2016 when he aggregated 641 runs in 13 innings with just nine sixes. (PTI)

In T20, it is swing out or get out. Kohli though isn’t about force. He picks the gaps, times his shots to perfection. Probably, it is only now that he is not focusing as much on the timing bit. Case in point is Kohli’s century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. Third ball of the seventh over, he mistimed a pull off Mohammad Nabi, but still went through with it. Had Ibrahim Zadran not attempted a one-handed catch, who knows how long Kohli would have had to wait for his 71st hundred. Kohli didn’t hold back even after getting a life. He went on to hit four more sixes, all between long-off and deep midwicket, in an innings thoroughly unlike Kohli.

Each of those six sixes helped Kohli accelerate whenever required. From 59 off 40 balls, he scored his next 63 runs off 21 balls—a strike rate jump from 147.5 to 300—reaching the three-figure mark with a six. Barely two weeks after that hundred, Kohli came in at No 3, hitting four sixes in a 48-ball 63 against Australia. Kohli clearly isn’t hanging around, signalling a marked shift in his approach in this format.

Kohli was most prolific in 2016 when he aggregated 641 runs in 13 innings with just nine sixes. He has hit 11 sixes in the Asia Cup alone. “I always came to every tournament or series thinking six-hitting is not a big strength of mine,” Kohli said in an interview to bcci.tv after the Asia Cup. “I can (hit sixes) when the situation demands, but I'm better at finding gaps and hitting boundaries. I told the coaches as well that I’m going to try and hit gaps rather than thinking I've to hit sixes to improve strike rates in T20 cricket. That thing I removed from my system in this tournament (Asia Cup) and that helped because I was able to come back to my template. But it's about being in a good space and enjoying your batting.” To add perspective, 2019 was the only other time we got a glimpse of this version of Kohli as he hit 23 sixes in 10 games, to date his best return in a calendar year.

Everything however hinged on striking a balance between aggression and caution. If he bats in the slog overs, Kohli’s strike rate has rarely gone below 195. But his opening acts also go a long way in setting the tone for his innings. 2016 and 2019 thus offer a peculiar subset of statistics where Kohli’s strike rates in the middle overs (128 and 133 respectively) and slog overs (203 and 219) were pretty similar but not during the Powerplay—115 in 2016 and 91 in 2019. The only other time Kohli was batting more freely in the Powerplay was in 2017 when he returned a strike rate of 138 across 104 balls before touching 169 in the middle overs. Unlike in 2019 and later, his slog-over strike rate levelled out at 168 that year.

A quick start followed by smooth acceleration is considered key to T20 batting success. And it seems Kohli has finally got it right. Compared to a grand total of one six in Powerplay overs in 2016 and 2019, Kohli has already hit four sixes this year—the most in a year in his career. And he is already hitting a six every 8.6 balls in the slog overs (it makes 2022 his best year after 2019 and 2014). The cumulative effect of that is showing in his strike rates column—122 in the Powerplay, 123 in the middle overs and 196 in the slog overs. And he has achieved it while going through the longest spell without a hundred by any modern batting great in recent times.

“We can playin many ways, but my role is to play as per the situation, and if it demands that I have to take the scoring rate higher, I should be able to do it. My aim was if I can be in this zone, I can be relaxed because I know if I'm set for 10-15 balls, I can accelerate,” Kohli said.

The transfomation must have been difficult though.

For over a decade, Kohli was a stickler for getting the basics right. Now, he is taking the aerial route more often, sweeping spinners and not sweating too much over timing. Kohli’s sixes count has swelled as a result, so have the fours, a more intrinsic part of his game. And that’s comforting considering clearing Australia’s bigger boundaries isn’t always easy.