Old vintage Virat Kohli: Aakash Chopra praises former RCB skipper for his unbeaten 41 vs PBKS

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in match 3 of the ongoing IPL 2022 edition at the DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday evening (March 27). It was a high-scoring contest which went down the wire before the Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab outfit emerged on top by five wickets in a thrilling fashion.

Talking about the contest, Mayank & Co. opted to bowl first. Riding on new skipper Faf du Plessis' masterclass (57-ball 88),former captain Virat Kohli's 29-ball 41* and Dinesh Karthik's 32* (14), RCB posted a mammoth 205 for 2 in 20 overs. However, they couldn't defend the total courtesy a combined batting performance from Punjab's top guns (Mayank, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith) as PBKS got off to a flying start in IPL 2022.

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After the contest, former Indian opener-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra opined on Kohli's unbeaten knock."He looked good. This was like that old vintage Virat Kohli. He started with a bang and that's what he can do whenever he wants. He took on Brar. The last time he had issues, he was dismissed. He hit him for a six. He hit the boundaries and then took a backseat," Chopra told Star Sports.

"Not that he was not scoring quickly enough. It's just that he realised that he had to play the supporting role to Faf du Plessis. He understood that 'I may have been the hero in many a movie, but right now I have to play the role of a hero's brother'.

"He let Faf du Plessis take centre stage but he was right till the end, he scored at close to 150. He was scoring at a fair clip but wasn't really greedy to get onto the strike as quickly as possible," he added.

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Chopra also opened up on Kohli reuniting with Team India's former batting coach Sanjay Bangar in the RCB setup. For the unversed, Bangar is serving as RCB's head coach for IPL 2022. In this regard, he pointed out, "I am delighted to see this Virat Kohli because, for the last six months, we have seen a different sort of Virat Kohli. He was in one mood - to defend everything. There was a process that he followed all this while and he is back to that now. There is something about Sanjay Bangar and Virat Kohli. There is some chemistry there that brings the best out of Kohli."

Kohli struck at 141.38 during his unbeaten knock versus PBKS. He will be eager to continue in a similar stead in RCB's next game, where they face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the same venueon Wednesday.