IPL 2022: Manjrekar decodes reason behind Kohli's batting struggles

Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has attributed Virat Kohli's current struggles to his tendency to bat on the front foot no matter what, and claimed that this is "not helping his cause".

Kohli, the most successful batter in IPL history with 6624 runs in 215 innings (223 matches) at an average of 36.20 and strike rate of 129.13, has had a poor IPL 2022 as per his own standard as Royal Challengers Bangalore lost in the playoffs once again.

In 16 innings in IPL 2022, Kohli had scored 341 runs at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 115.98 with the highest score of 73.

"Virat wanting to be on the front foot no matter what is not helping his cause. Mental toughness takes you far for sure, but technical issues cannot be ignored completely," Manjrekar tweeted after Royal Challengers Bangalore's campaign in IPL 2022 came to an end with a seven-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad on Friday night.

Manjrekar, considered as one of the most technically sound batsmen of his time, also cited the example of how Kohli got out in the Qualifier 2 match against Rajasthan Royals to support his observation.

"Crunch game... front foot to a short of length bouncing ball cost him his wicket again," Manjrekar said in his tweet.

Kohli, who has not scored an international century since November 2019, has relinquished captaincy in T20 while the selectors decided to hand over the reins to Rohit Sharma in ODIs and Test cricket. He has been advised to take a break from all formats of cricket by Ravi Shastri, with whom the Delhi batter has shared close relations in the last few years.