‘He has mastered the art of T20 batting’: Manjrekar lauds Kohli after his IPL 2026 final heroics

After 18 IPL seasons and two titles, back-to-back, batting giant Virat Kohli has mastered the art of T20 batting, says cricketer-turned-broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar. Kohli, the RCB icon, was the hero with the bat on the night of the IPL 2026 final in Ahmedabad, hitting an unbeaten 75 to complete the run chase (against the Gujarat Titans) and help his team successfully defend its IPL crown. With 675 runs this season, Kohli became the only player ever to breach the 600-run mark in four straight editions, creating history. However, his longtime sceptic, Sanjay, praised Virat for his heroics.

Virat has won countless T20 matches for India and his IPL franchise over the years, proving how well he has met the demands of the modern-day T20 game. Often called out for his strike rate, Virat bettered it from the last season, scoring at over 165 in IPL 2026, and Manjrekar is absolutely delighted with this improvement in his batting.

Also, unlike previously, when Kohli used to take his time before opening his arms, as it’s his usual game, the batting king now begins in the third and fourth gear, cashing in on the chances inside the Powerplay, something that impressed Manjrekar the most. Taking to his Instagram channel, Sanjay lauded Kohli, saying,

“At this stage, watching him in this tournament, he has mastered the art of T20 batting that is needed in IPL cricket. Which means now he knows that he has to score at a 150 to 160 strike rate. So he cashes in the first six overs. The most important thing is that he has found this power game, which is just about optimum. It’s almost like he is in third and fourth gear, while the others are trying to hit at a strike rate of 200 and 230.

“Because of that, there are mishits, and they have to be lucky with someone dropping a catch, and then their innings flourish. Virat Kohli has ensured that there aren’t any mishits because he’s just hitting the ball long enough to go over the boundary, thereby ensuring his technique and balance are right. The bottom hand jab comes into play,” he added.

Precision of placing fours over volatile sixes

Regardless of how quickly T20 cricket is evolving and upcoming youngsters love smashing all balls over the boundary line, Kohli enjoys scoring his boundaries, as he does in international cricket. Carefully mending his T20 game to tick the modern-day parameters, Kohli hasn’t lost touch with scoring fours at will.

“When hitting boundaries, Kohli is still big on fours rather than sixes as he does in white-ball international cricket. Having mastered the art of T20 batting, I don’t see it quickly fading away from Kohli. He will keep working on his fitness, and he has found this template to be consistent and to go with the modern times of strike rate. This form of Virat Kohli will be there for a while, and thereby, RCB will be very fortunate and, in a way, very deserving as well,” Manjrekar observed.

Meanwhile, Kohli’s next outing will be against Afghanistan during the three-match ODI series starting June 14.