'Virat Kohli not thinking enough about boundaries': Vaughan points out where former India captain can improve

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has pointed out where Virat Kohli is going wrong in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Kohli scored his fifth half-century of IPL 2023 but could not prevent Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) from losing to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday. The RCB stand-in skipper struck sixes fours in his knock of 54 off 37 as his side fell short by 21 runs in their chase of 201 at Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Vaughan said that Kohli is not thinking about boundaries enough. The Englishman stated that teams will be looking to bowl more spin against Kohli because of his lower strike-rate against them. He has scored runs at a strike-rate of 103 against spin at an average of 22.25 and has been dismissed four times by a spinner this season.

"A lot of teams are going to bowl spin against Virat because of his strike rate against them. I think he has a 107 strike rate against spin. So most teams are going to bowl spin against Virat Kohli and they are going to put three fielders at the mid-wicket," Vaughan said in an interview with Cricbuzz.

With 333 runs in eight games, Kohli is the second leading scorer in the IPL 2023, behind RCB skipper Faf du Plessis who has scored 422 runs. While the South African has struck 34 fours and 27 sixes so far this season, Kohli has 31 fours and 11 sixes in comparison.

"I think his [Kohli] mindset after the powerplay is almost to be there at the 18th (over). I don't think he is thinking about boundaries enough. I think he can (hit boundaries) because he is got the game, the power and the timing to be able to go and hit the six," Vaughan added.

Kohli, whose top score as yet is 82 not out, has also been very active in the field, picking up eight catches in the first eight games of IPL 2023.

Meanwhile, after RCB's latest defeat, which came against KKR, Kohli did not hold back as he slammed his side for throwing away a nearly won game. Kohli, who has been captaining RCB again in du Plessis' absence, said that his side handed over the victory to KKR, hence they did not deserve to win.

After Kohli's half-century, the next best RCB batter was Mahipal Lomror, who scored an 18-ball 34.

"To be honest we handed them the game. We did deserve to lose. We handed them a victory. We were certainly not up to standard. If you look at the game, we didn't capitalize our chances. We dropped a few chances which cost us 25-30 runs. We set up ourselves really well. We ended up hitting the fielder to balls which weren't wicket taking.

"It is what's on the scoreboard and how to get them. Even while chasing, despite losing wickets we were one partnership away from being in the game. We needed one partnership to get us home. We need to be switched on and not give away soft plays. We have won one and lost one on the road. It is not something that is making us nervous. We need to win some away games to be in good shape for the later stages of the tournament," added Kohli.

RCB's next game is on May 1 as they take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in an away fixture.