Veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara feels that Virat Kohli evolved as a batter during the IPL 2025 season, and he was able to shut down his strike-rate critics. Kohli had a great season with the bat in the IPL this season, scoring 657 runs in 15 matches with a strike-rate of 144.71 as well. He also scored 8 fifties during the season as RCB won their first IPL title as well.
“It’s not easy, but the good part about Virat is that he is one of the fittest cricketers, and he is open to adapting to a new challenge or something different. He is always open to learning new things,” said Pujara. “People have been criticizing him in the past that he wasn’t batting at a strike rate of 140-150. Now, if you look at his batting this season, he has answered that question. He has batted at a strike rate of 140-150 and above. So he has evolved as a batter.”
Cheteshwar Pujara also feels that Virat Kohli’s desire to learn shows how big a player he is as well. However, Kohli will next play in India’s tour of Australia later in the year.
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“It doesn’t come naturally. You need to work on it, and even to work on it at this age, when he is 36 and has played the game for such a long time, if you are still willing to learn and make a difference to the team, that shows how big a player he is,” he added.
“It’s a massive moment in his career. He has achieved a lot in his career, but the one thing he couldn’t achieve in his career for so many years was an IPL title. It shows how much it mattered to him because he was working hard to win this title for many years. He was looking very emotional and the tears coming from his eyes show the importance of an IPL title for a cricketer,” again said Pujara.
“Virat has many personal achievements in his career and has done a lot with the Indian team as well. Only one thing was left incomplete in his cricketing career, that was the IPL title. RCB won that yesterday (Tuesday), and his dream of winning an IPL title got fulfilled,” Cheteshwar Pujara concluded.
