The legendary batter was speaking on JioHotstar when he highlighted the unique mental and competitive challenges of the IPL.
He said that the points table changing constantly creates different kinds of pressure, whether it was maintaining a lead, bouncing back from a slump, or battling for a playoff spot. This kind of a tournament pushes players to adapt and evolve their T20 skills, ultimately driving them to improve constantly.
“IPL challenges you in a very unique way because of how the tournament is structured. It’s not like a short bilateral series; it spans several weeks, and your position on the points table keeps shifting. That constantly changing scenario brings different kinds of pressure. When you are at the top, there’s the pressure to maintain that lead. If you’re near the bottom, you need extra motivation to bounce back. And if you’re somewhere in the middle, where you need to win, say, three out of five games, even a single loss can suddenly add a lot of pressure. This dynamic nature of the tournament pushes you mentally and competitively in various ways other formats don’t. It’s also driven me to improve and evolve my T20 skill set constantly,” Virat Kohli said while speaking on ’18 Calling 18′ on JioHotstar.
Kohli has scored 164 runs in four matches in IPL 2025, including two half centuries. RCB, as a team has enjoyed a good start, having won three out of four matches. They ended a 17-year winless streak in Chennai by defeating Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and they also achieved their first victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in a decade.
Kohli is approaching his former RCB teammate Chris Gayle after becoming only the fifth batter to score 13,000 runs in T20 cricket. The 36-year-old also ranks at the top among Indian batsmen in terms of centuries, hitting nine in his career, eight of which occurred in the IPL. Kohli had previously surpassed the 10,000-run mark T20 milestone during the 2021 IPL, accomplishing the feat in 299 innings as the third-fastest batter after Babar Azam and Gayle. More than 8000 of Kohli’s T20 runs have been scored in the IPL, where the Royal Challengers Bengaluru star continues to lead the batting charts.
Kohli will be next seen in action on April 9, when RCB will take on Delhi Capitals in their next IPL 2025 match in Delhi.
