There have been periods of control, confusion, back-to-back ducks, and finally, an unbeaten hundred that silenced everything.
Virat Kohli has accumulated a tally of 542 runs from 13 innings, averaging 54.20 with a strike-rate of 164.74. All of these statistics are proof enough to justify Kohli being one of those batsmen who are valued by every good T20 team.
At the time of writing, RCB were on 18 points with 13 games played and had qualified for the playoffs. And that is why Kohli’s IPL 2026 campaign will go down as one of the best reasons for that achievement.
opening game
The opening game gave us enough indications to be impressed. In the away match vs RCB in Bengaluru, the target was 202. Low target. Good batting conditions. On that particular occasion Kohli played what can only be described as a masterful innings, scoring 69 off 38 deliveries.
Devdutt Padikkal blazed early, Rajat Patidar arrived and launched a few, but it was Kohli who carried the innings in all its beauty and took the game away with 26 balls remaining. And the truth is that Kohli wasn’t trying to win a fan here. He played an innings as brutal as they come and as experienced players tend to play in T20 cricket these days when they know the exact risks that are unnecessary.
The first innings of the season that made some noise came when RCB faced in Bengaluru. Gujarat scored 205 in that game, setting a very steep target. But it was in vain. Kohli had life in the first ball of the innings. And once again, the chase started heating up.
Virat Kohli
And the reason was that Kohli scored 81 runs in just 44 deliveries, including eight fours and four sixes. Also, his 115 runs partnership with Padikkal helped RCB win the match. But there is more than that.
It was not Kohli going after the bowling freely. It was Kohli playing an innings that shows how years and experience help the batsman get the edge over bowlers by turning their targets into burdens. You see the asking rate as the key element here. But then you see Kohli starting taking singles and doubles before turning things around with boundaries.
And it happens three days later, he hardly needs to bat, and he makes it historical. Delhi were bowled out for 75.
Also, with the help of these 23 innings, he became the first batter to break the 9K-run barrier in IPL, another huge achievement for the man. That is the crazy thing about him right now; even the smallest innings come with records attached.
Every time he picks up a bat in an ordinary innings turns into a milestone because he has played enough in the league and scored enough such that every single one of his ordinary innings turns into something special.
But it all got weird. He scored 28 runs in 13 balls against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. Nice. Short-lived. Then, against Lucknow and Mumbai, 0 runs each in 2 balls and 1 ball respectively. Double ducks. That is when things went south. You cannot hide anything from the scoreboard in T20. No way. Not the ducks at least.
Openers get the quickest judgment
Openers get the quickest judgment in any form of cricket because they face failure the quickest. No interpretation of their failures, just a zero. On the night, Kohli remains Kohli, which means no matter how insignificant the ducks are, they turn into something else. But the more important part of the story is that which happened after that.
Kohli also scored another good innings after those double ducks. To justify his century, the next innings were very important to be honest. Kohli hit 58 runs from 37 deliveries giving the total score of 222 versus Punjab Kings in Dharamsala. Not the most brilliant innings, but still pretty good. As per the analysis of ESPNcricinfo, it was the best of the season by VK 18.
High-class batters
High-class batters make their case by scoring runs every match even if they do it in other players’ games. That is what Kohli did; Venkatesh Iyer starred in the game that day, but Kohli kept the team’s game intact. Here is the season broken down in the order they have occurred: 69 not out, 28, 32, 50, 49, 19, 81, 23 not out, 28, 0, 0, 105 not out, 58.
This is clearly not the kind of batting season in which Kohli was cruising through with ease. Much better, in my opinion. In the last month or so, he has managed to give starts, anchor positions, bursts, blanks, a good rescue innings, and a good statement of the hundred.