Star player Virat Kohli is “under a lot of pressure” in the ongoing IPL because of the collective failure of Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters, said former Australia captain Steve Smith who wants the RCB players to step up. However, Virat Kohli has waged a lone battle for RCB this IPL season with 203 runs in four matches at 67.66 with two fifties as well. The second-best batter, Dinesh Karthik, is way behind with 90 runs in as many games so far as well.
“He needs the other key batters to stand up with him, and if they do that, they can turn things around for their season. But, at the moment, they’re not so a lot of pressure is on Virat,” Smith, a member of the Star Sports Incredible Star Cast, told PTI in an exclusive interaction at the channel’s studio here. “I doubt he’d be putting extra pressure on himself. (But) some of the other top-order and middle-order (batters) need to help Virat.”
Steve Smith also warned that Virat Kohli is not going to score runs in every match and RCB batters should step up with both the bat and the ball to win games.
“He started the campaign really well in the IPL and he needs some support. He’s not going to score runs on every occasion. But, I doubt he’d be thinking that way. I don’t think he’d go out and put extra pressure on himself. He’d just go out and play and see what happens in that game. Virat is an incredible player. What he does really well, and probably better than most people in the world, is (that) he sums up the conditions and the situation of the game and plays accordingly,” he said.
“If he needs to strike big, he does. If he needs to bring it back a little bit and build some partnerships…You don’t need 180 on every ground; 150-160 might be enough on some grounds. Virat sums up the conditions really well and the situation. I’m not fussed about the strike rate,” Steve Smith continued.
Steve Smith also opined on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy of Mumbai Indians and the fan backlash he is facing right now. He understands why Pandya has been facing all these so far, but he wants fans to stop holding on to the past and back Pandya as well.
“Yes and no. Obviously, there was that (booing) going on in the first two games. It sort of becomes a bit of a thing, if that makes sense. But, it was unfortunate, I think. I’d love to see them supporting Hardik. Obviously, there’s a lot of huge Rohit fans out there,” he said. “A lot of people are a bit annoyed that he’s not the captain of the side. But, everyone needs to let go of that and support Hardik. He’s a wonderful player. He had a lot of success at Gujarat (Titans). He’s back (as) captain of the side at Mumbai now. The senior players need to help him out.”
Steve Smith, however, denied the fact that the off-field drama has been a factor in MI’s three successive defeats as well.
“One thing about the Mumbai Indians is (that) they’re notoriously bad starters in the tournament. They’ve done it on numerous occasions,” he said. “I don’t think they’d be too worried just yet. But, they will have to turn things around really quickly. It doesn’t look good, 0-3 at the bottom of the table. They have to turn things around really quickly,” he concluded.
