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It has not been the best of outings for Virat Kohli in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), he has been dismissed for straight golden ducks in the last two matches. Meanwhile, RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar has admitted that Kohli is going through some rough patches.
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On Saturday, Kohli fell for his second consecutive golden duck in RCB’s nine-wicket loss to former champion SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. It was the first time in his decorated career that he had been dismissed for ducks successively. In IPL 2022 so far, he has managed just 119 runs in eight innings at a flawed average of 17.00 and a strike rate of 122.68, with a top score of 48.
FULL SCORECARD: IPL 2022 - RCB vs SR (Match 36)
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Speaking during the post-match press conference, Bangar remarked, “He [Kohli] is somebody who has performed consistently for RCB. He’s going through a couple of rough patches in the sense that things are not going his way. He started the season well. You think of the start he got when he had that partnership at the start of the championship and nearly hit the winning runs in the Pune game.”
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“He [Kohli] has not been off-colour. But, in the last three-four games, he’s got that odd run-out or the first edge that finds his bat lands in the fielder’s hands. We have all gone through such phases as cricketers. Certainly, it is a tough phase for him, but we are very confident that he will come back strong,” concluded Bangar.