Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 75 led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to its second IPL title. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI

Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured its second consecutive IPL title with victory over Gujarat Titans in the final on May 31, and it was talisman Virat Kohli that saw it home with an unbeaten 75 in the showstopper. 

Kohli had another impressive season, scoring 675 runs at an average of 56.25 and strike-rate of 165.84, becoming the first player in IPL history to register four consecutive 600-run seasons. His performances led former India international Sanjay Manjrekar to say that Kohli has “mastered the T20 game.”

“He’s now cashing in in the first six overs, but he does it a little differently,” Manjrekar observed on Sportstar’s Insight Edge podcast. “What he has mastered, which he was struggling with in the last few years, is achieving a higher strike-rate but playing shots which aren’t the big T20 shots. 

What he was doing earlier was he was trying to hang in there and let the other guys hit the big shots. When he felt the pressure of upping the run rate he would go for the big shot and get out.”

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“Now he plays the in-between attacking shots, these are the bottom-hand shots. A lot of those are just flicked over short midwicket or the six is just over the boundary rope,” he said. 

Manjrekar also said that he had confidence that Kohli’s form would transfer to next year as well, saying, “Anything on middle and off, he’s just chipping it over for fours and sixes. When somebody bowls outside off, then he goes down the pitch and makes it difficult. So now when I see Virat Kohli, he’s mastered the T20 and IPL game, and I can see that happening next year as well.”

The former broadcaster also praised Kohli for his ability to chase totals. “He’s a great chase master and it wasn’t a 240 chase and he’s just sort of mastered this game,” he said. “He knows how to go about making sure that you don’t get out as easily as some of the other top-order batters get out, but still have a strike rate of 150-160.“

Published on Jun 02, 2026