"He did the right thing by getting Patidar up there"- Aaron Finch defends Virat Kohli's knock against SRH in the strike rate debate amidst IPL 2024

Former Australian skipper Aaron Finch tried to find the rationale behind Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli's slowdown during his innings of 51 off 43 balls against the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2024 on Thursday, April 25.

Kohli scored just 19 runs off the 25 balls he faced outside the powerplay and many in the cricket fraternity have questioned his strike rate. Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar on air expressed his disappointment with Kohli's knock and said:

"When you are facing the strike in the first ball of the innings and you get out in the 14th or the 15th over, you have got a strike rate of 118, that's not what your team expects from you."

However, speaking to Star Sports, Aaron Finch had a different take. He shed light on the partnership between Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar and stressed the importance of the latter getting as much strike as possible because of his hitting ability.

On this, Finch opined:

"One thing you have to keep in mind is that Patidar was going crazy at the other end. Sometimes your job as a set batter is to take the game a little bit deeper and get Patidar on strike as much as possible. That's where the intent to hit boundaries goes out. You can look at him in isolation and say, 'Yes, it dropped'. But as a partnership, it worked really well. He (Kohli) did the right thing by getting Patidar up there."

Patidar played a sensational knock of 50 off just 20 balls and won the Player of the Match award as RCB beat SRH by 35 runs.

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Irfan Pathan on Virat Kohli's approach

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan was on air for Star Sports and explained how Kohli's change in mindset has helped him adapt to modern-day T20 standards.

"He (Kohli) is no longer hesitant to hit the ball in the air. To change your approach at this stage of your career despite scoring more than 25000 runs at the international level, he is just a different beast when it comes to mindset," he said.

Despite the scratchy innings against SRH, Virat Kohli continues to be at the top of the Orange Cap list with 435 runs from nine matches at an average of 61.43 and a strike rate of 145.76.