If you want Virat Kohli to strike higher, his consistency will go down: Aaron Finch

India Today

Former Australia captain Aaron Finch feels Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli's consistency will be massively affected if he tries to up his strike rate in the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025).

Transcript

00:00Yeah. It's a good question. And at times, I don't think that the bowling gets enough

00:07time or credit. There's so much talk about batters and what they can do. I mean, Sunrisers,

00:13I think the way that they've put together their bowling line-up, they've got wicket

00:18takers with the new ball in Shammy, they've got Cummins, they've got Zampa. So to me,

00:22that looks like a really well-balanced line-up. GT, I mean, any time that Rashid Khan's in

00:28your side, you become a threat and you combine that with Rabada. It's a good one. I mean,

00:37you go to Chennai and it seems as though that they've based their team around trying to

00:42win home games. There's plenty of spin options there. And you go, anyone, anyone of Ashwin,

00:49Jadeja, Noor Ahmed, they become a really, really strong bowling line-up. So it's a line-up.

00:58They've all got wicket takers. Yeah, I mean, bowling is such an important part. If you get

01:03wickets into power play, that sets up your game, in my opinion. So when you look down the line-ups,

01:09I mean, Sunrisers, Hyderabad with Cummins, Shammy, Zampa, they're world-class bowlers.

01:15They can do some damage. Mumbai Indians, they've got Boomer, of course, if he's 100% fit. Trent

01:22Bolt, who's done it time and time again. That's a threat against anyone. KJ Rabada and Rashid

01:33Khan, they're great combinations that you can have all throughout the 20 overs. So I think,

01:40while there's always so much focus on the batting and that's where a huge amount of the interest

01:45comes from and the entertainment comes from, I think the bowling side of it is where you win

01:50titles. If you look at Chennai, it looks like that they've built a team to try and win all their

01:58home games. Jadu, Ashwin, Noor Ahmed, they become a real threat, especially playing at a ground

02:07like Chepauk or Lucknow, where the ball can spin as well. So yeah, for me, there's plenty of wicket

02:13takers. There's plenty of people right throughout that are world-class and it'll be such an

02:19important part as well because that's where the titles are won, I think.

02:24My question is that Jake Fraser-Mega had a great first season. This is the second season where

02:30there'll be more eyeballs on him, there'll be more data on him. They will try to decode

02:35Fraser-Mega's team. So how does he evolve and how does he

02:41outwit the opponents when there's so much data available on him now that he's no longer an

02:46unknown agent? Yeah, it's a good question because I think that every player faces that at some point

02:51throughout their career. You come in without a huge amount of knowledge on you, so then you're

02:57able to play your way and you're able to dictate terms to the opposition and you can get ahead of

03:02the game really quickly and that then puts pressure back on the opposition. The challenge

03:06now, obviously, is to still keep that great mindset and that really clear mindset that he had

03:12last season. But, I mean, just evolve with the game slightly as well. Understand that it's not

03:18just about a 10 or 15-ball burst from you. There's a responsibility that once you get in, you make

03:24those good days great and turn them into match-winning and match-defining innings. You

03:31think of somebody, well, a partnership at the top like Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. When they

03:37both got in, they went big and their teams won games purely on the back of their performances. So,

03:42that's just the next stage. I mean, the more cricket that you play, the more that you start

03:47to understand the opposition as well. So, it's great that teams will now have more information

03:54on him, but he's also got more information as well. So, then trying to come up with game plans

04:00where you can find that one or two percent difference in the game is so important as well.

04:04So, it can also work both ways, but I'll be very excited to see how it goes.

04:11The grammar of T20 batting has changed. In India, we've seen Abhishek Sharma, we've seen

04:17guys like Sanju Samson, how they've gone about their job for India and also for their respective

04:22franchises. Virat Kohli, normally when he plays for RTV bats, either he opens the innings and

04:28most occasions in the past few years or he bats numbers. Do you think he needs to change his game?

04:33He's probably playing at a strike rate of 135-40, but now the industrial strike rate has gone up

04:40160-170 for the openness. So, does Virat Kohli need to change his game in order for RTV to

04:47take full advantage considering their bowling lineup might not be as good as some of the others?

04:53Well, the question you have to ask yourself is, do you want 700 or 800 runs or are you happy with

05:00400? Because if you want Virat to strike higher, he can absolutely do that. But with that comes a

05:07higher risk and the consistency will go down. So, in my opinion, if you offered me 750 runs

05:15from one of your top three batters at the start of the season, you would take that every day of the

05:19week. So, I don't think that there's a huge need to change. Maybe it's a slight tempo or

05:27changing the tempo up slightly. But overall, I would bank the runs every single day of the week.

05:33And then you start to build your team around somebody like that. It's not just about people

05:38who walk out of the change rooms and strike at 200 from ball one. I think that that's unrealistic to

05:44ask seven batters to do that all in the one team because when it doesn't go well, you lose the

05:51game. So, there's a real balancing act still. I know that the game's gone to a new level in the

05:55last two seasons, but you still need to have the foundations and you still need to have that person

06:01there that's able to strike and bat deep into the inning. So, I would bank the runs every single day

06:07of the week. But just taking the question forward, but Rohit Sharma, actually in T20 cricket

06:16for the past two years and also in one-day cricket, he had changed more than his game.

06:19He went for a high-risk approach where probably the centuries had been cut down. Maybe the big

06:24sports have come down. But he's always, more often than not, giving the team a good start. So,

06:30isn't it like in a short game like 120 balls, possibly there is no place for consolidation.

06:38It's only attacking the best defense kind of thing, grammar has changed.

06:44Yeah, I understand the question. But when you look at the way that Rohit's done it,

06:48have a look at the players that he's had around him. He still had the foundations of a player

06:52that the team can bat around him. So, it's okay to walk out and swing from the hip and look to

06:59try and dominate and hit a lot of sixes from early in your innings. But you have to understand

07:04the dynamic of the team around that. When you look, when Rohit's made that conscious decision,

07:10he's had Virat coming in behind him at number three. So, there's an ability for him to say,

07:14you know what, I've got the guy behind that will fix any mistakes that I make.

07:17Because the upside is huge. But you can't have everybody in the team just looking to swing for

07:22the fences from ball one. So, that's a really, that's a good question. And I understand that

07:28Rohit's done that and he's been very successful doing it. And the starts that he's got India off

07:33to have been brilliant. But I don't see the need for Virat to have to change to do that.

07:38Maybe if his strike rate goes from 140 to 150, he can absolutely do that. No issues whatsoever.

07:44But how many times has he been in a situation where he's had to almost dig RCB out of the

07:51hole? Because everybody else has fallen around him. So, like I said before, I would bank the runs

08:00every day of the week from a top three player. Because that gives the rest of the order so much

08:04freedom. That gives you the option to be more aggressive from the other batters.

08:12My last question would be like, Surya had a tremendous season in 2023-24.

08:19In 2024, he had a lean season even by his standards for India and in the IPL.

08:26So, he's going to lead India in the World Cup next year. So, how important is the season? And do you

08:32think he needs to change his game? Maybe have some more shots? Like, he's always playing the shot

08:39behind the square. Maybe some more range? Some more options in front of the square, you think, he should look at?

08:48I think if you talk to any bowler around the world who's bowled to him, they'll say that he's got

08:52enough shot options. What we've seen over the last couple of years is his ability now to hit over

08:58mid-off. That's something that teams felt as though was a weakness to him. You're able to

09:04leave mid-off up because that was an area of weakness. But now, he can destroy you over there.

09:09So, it's obviously a big season for him. He sets high standards for himself. So,

09:17leading into a T20 World Cup that he's going to lead, I don't think that this IPL has any

09:22impact on that. I don't think it has any bearing either. But he's got enough shots. He can

09:28play all around the ground. So, he's a world-class player and as good as anybody

09:33in the world to watch when he's in full flight.

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