Former India player Aakash Chopra has said that Virat Kohli played a slow knock in the IPL 2025 final between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Punjab Kings (PBKS). He added that his innings seemingly put his team behind the eight ball as well. Kohli took 35 deliveries for his 43 runs as RCB set PBKS a 191-run target in the IPL 2025 final in Ahmedabad as well. They then restricted PBKS to 184/7 to register a six-run win and bag their maiden IPL trophy.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Azmatullah Omarzai dismissed Virat Kohli. He ran and took the catch as well. Virat was going a little slow. It’s true that if 190 runs are scored, and your strike rate is around 120, obviously, at that point in time, you start feeling that he is slightly behind the eight ball, that he is not running at that pace.”

“However, I always call Virat the destiny’s child. He might not have scored runs in the entire tournament, but he comes to the final, becomes the Player of the Match, and wins that World Cup (T20 World Cup 2024). If it’s a World Cup match against Pakistan, it brings the best out of him. All things happen in such a way that Virat Kohli is always there. Sometimes, it’s in your destiny, and that’s exactly what happened,” he again shared.

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However, Aakash Chopra added that Virat Kohli would be filled with gratitude that he could finally win an IPL trophy that had remained elusive for 17 years as well.

“The slow knock too didn’t hurt the team in the end, because what matters is how it ended. It ended with a trophy and tears in your eyes. It might have ended with a lot of gratitude, that god has been very, very kind. He himself admitted that he never thought this would happen, because when you are heartbroken so many times, you feel it won’t happen at all,” he said.

“You feel you will keep trying every year, and this will remain an unfulfilled dream, because no one gets everything in life. However, since Virat is destiny’s child, he has got everything and a bit more. Virat Kohli was absolutely phenomenal throughout the tournament. May not be in the final as much, but the hard work over so many years has eventually yielded dividends,” Aakash Chopra concluded.