IPL 2022: Will RCB fans see the Virat Kohli from 2016? Sunil Gavaskar answers

Virat Kohli will be playing for RCB in IPL 2022 as a batter after eight years, having quit the captaincy. Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar reckons if the Kohli from IPL 2016 can be back.

Image credit: Getty & BCCI

Virat Kohli will once against be representing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. After eight years, he will be playing as a batter for the side, having quit the captaincy after IPL 2021. Meanwhile, how he would fare as a batter is being wondered, while legendary former Little Master Sunil Gavaskar has reckoned that the Kohli from IPL 2016 could be back.

Image credit: BCCI

Kohli has struggled for form in the last couple of years. Notably, he has failed to score a century in international cricket in over two years, while his previous ton in the IPL came in IPL 2019 against former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). As for his best season in the tournament to date, it was in 2016 when he finished as the highest run-scorer, slamming 973 runs in 16 innings at a massive average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03, including four tons and five half-centuries, while his top score was 113. It is the most runs scored by a batter in an IPL season.

Speaking to Star Sports, Gavaskar assessed, "At the moment, we do not know whether Kohli will be captain again. Sometimes when a player is relieved of the burden of captaincy, he flourishes as he is not thinking about ten other players. When you are captain, you are thinking about ten other players and sometimes also the other members of your squad, about their form or lack of form and things that they are not doing right, which when they do it right, will be good for the team. This season, we might see the Kohli of 2016 where he got almost 1,000 runs in the IPL season."

Gavaskar also spoke on all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who has turned out to be a hearty investment for RCB of late. "Maxwell's cricket depends on how he approaches every inning. There are times when his approach has been unbelievably fantastic, and then it has not been that great," he speculated.

Gavaskar also noted Maxwell's partnership with Kohli and concluded, "Last season, he was in a team with Virat Kohli and ABD [AB de Villiers], two of the finest batsmen that the game has seen, and so maybe he lifted his game. He raised the level of his game to try to keep up with that."