Virat Kohli turns up only in one format after having retired from Test and T20Is, but the defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru would want their star batter to come out all guns blazing. However, former India allrounder Irfan Pathan believes it could be challenging for Kohli.
Kohli led the run charts in the last edition of the IPL and played a pivotal role in RCB’s title-winning campaign where he scored 657 runs in 15 innings with eight fifties. Pathan says it would be exciting to see how Kohli goes about his batting in IPL 2026.
“This time, things will be a little different for Kohli. For the first time, he will play the IPL having completely retired from Test cricket. He is playing only one format. It is not easy for anyone. But he has scored and his performance has been brilliant. Even when he comes after a break, it has not been difficult for him in one-day cricket. In T20s, when you play the aggressor and come in not having played a lot, it will be challenging. But he has faced many challenges before as well. I am very excited to see how he will go forward this season,” Pathan remarked on his YouTube channel.
Kohli, despite, playing only the ODI format has been in excellent form where he smashed three hundreds in his last seven innings since October 2025. In his last ODI series against New Zealand, Kohli returned scores of 93, 23 and 124 as India lost the series 1-2.
Pathan reckons when Kohli changed his approach from anchor to aggressor, it translated to the success of RCB in IPL 2025. Pathan wants Kohli to continue with the same approach in this season too.
“Virat Kohli and RCB is an identity that goes together. He started with RCB and is still playing for them. He has delivered brilliant performances. It was also a golden period in his career when he captained the team, there were a lot of brilliant performances. When they won last season, his strike rate also went up. He did not play anchor but took the role of an aggressor. It was a very big factor. They will expect even this time that he keeps up the same form,” Pathan said.
