- By Himanshu Badola
- Mon, 27 May 2024 09:18 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
IPL 2024: Former India batter Ambati Rayudu has taken a swipe at Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru while praising the IPL 2024 champions on Sunday, May 26.
Rayudu came up with an explanation of what it takes to win the big prize in tournaments like IPL.
He believes that it's the collective effort of the team that leads a side to title wins rather than individual contributions like Virat Kohli made for RCB in the IPL 2024.
“Congratulations to the KKR team for really standing up for stalwarts like Narine, Russell and Starc and also contributing their share in the team’s win. That’s how a team wins the IPL. We have seen this over the years,” Rayudu said.
“It’s not the Orange Cap that wins you the IPL but it is the contributions like 300 runs each,” Rayudu added.
Kohli helped RCB reach the playoffs with six successive defeats but suffered a defeat against Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator, missing out on the title success for yet another season.
Rayudu made an interesting point as he felt that Kohli needed to “lower his standards a bit” in order to reduce the pressure on his teammates.
“Virat Kohli is a stalwart and a legend there in the team. He sets so high standards which puts pressure on the youngsters to emulate him. So, Virat needs to lower his standards a bit so that the youngsters can be in a good state of mind in the dressing room,” Rayudu added.
RCB have had big names like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Mitchell Starc, and Shane Watson over the years but despite multiple attempts, they haven't tasted the success of a title win.
Kohli has been leading their hunt for the IPL title since the inaugural 2008 season and he even led them to the final in the 2016 season.
The 2016 season was an iconic one for both Kohli and RCB but the Bengaluru-based franchise fell short, suffering a defeat in the final against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Kohli won the Orange Cap on the back of his 741 runs in 15 matches at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69 which he scored with the help of five fifties and a century.
“Extremely honoured to receive the orange cap for this season. It was a roller-coaster of a ride, I was really pleased with the way I performed for my team throughout the season but more importantly in the latter half where we needed to win every game to qualify,” Kohli said in a recorded message after the achievement.
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While this was Kohli's second Orange Cap win in his IPL career, he became the first Indian to achieve the feat in the tournament history.
The former RCB captain first won the Orange Cap in the memorable 2016 where he scored 973 runs in 16 matches at an average of 81.08 on the back of four hundreds and seven fifties.