Across 18 seasons, Virat Kohli now has 8,989 IPL runs. That is roughly 500 runs every single year, without a single dip in form lasting long enough to define a season.
Other great batters have careers. Kohli has had a sustained campaign of excellence.
Key Points
- There was the Kohli of old, and yet somehow, something newer and freer in the execution. The imperious version. The one that used to make batting look like an act of will imposed on the opposition.
- He arrives at the crease with a plan for each bowler that includes going over their head, not just through the gaps. 'He backs himself so much that he is able to execute the aerial shots time and again,' Dale Steyn said. 'This just shows the class of the man.'
- 'In 2024, his head was so still that even the movement of his feet was balanced, because he was still playing Test cricket. In 2026, he doesn't have to control his hands as much and is letting them go.'
A golden duck escape, two big milestones, and an innings that answered every doubt about his age -- Virat Kohli showed once again that he isn't just playing the IPL at 37, he's still dominating it.
On Friday night, the Chinnaswamy crowd played favourites. There was silence when B Sai Sudharsan raised his bat to celebrate his century. They knew their King had something bigger stored for them.
As soon as Kohli was on strike, for a brief moment there was a deafening silence, like a bated breath, which soon turned into relief for RCB fans and regret for Washington Sundar, who almost had him.
On the first ball of his innings, Kohli flicked it uppishly towards short midwicket -- one of the simplest catches but Sundar dropped it.
The M Chinnaswamy stadium held its breath, and then exhaled because what followed was a reminder of exactly who was standing at the crease.
Eight fours, four sixes, and a strike rate north of 180 plus
Kohli made his intentions unmistakably clear in the very next over. Kagiso Rabada, one of the finest fast bowlers in the world, was driven over mid-on for four with a contempt that felt personal.
There was the Kohli of old, and yet somehow, something newer and freer in the execution. The imperious version. The one that used to make batting look like an act of will imposed on the opposition.
Rashid Khan came on. The world's best spinner in T20 cricket. Kohli stepped out, picked up a short one and cleared deep midwicket for six, then cut the following delivery for four as if to make a secondary point. Two deliveries. Two different statements.
Jason Holder -- a bowler RCB batters had struggled to read all evening -- was targeted for two more sixes. He fell to Holder for 81 off 44 balls, chopping a slower bouncer back onto his stumps, the innings ending in the way so many great ones do: Not through any failure of technique but through a single moment of cleverness from the bowler. Eight fours, four sixes, and a strike rate north of 180 plus.
Milestones Achieved During The Innings
Buried inside that innings were two records that put Kohli's career into perspective in a way that no single match performance can. He became the first batter in IPL history to hit 800 fours. Shikhar Dhawan -- a man who spent 15 years cracking boundaries across every format -- sits next on the list with 768. David Warner and Rohit Sharma are the only others to have passed 600. Kohli is at 800-plus and still counting.
Then, just after the powerplay, he swatted Rashid Khan over the rope to bring up his 300th IPL six. Only Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle have ever done it.
Across 18 seasons, Kohli now has 8,989 IPL runs. That is roughly 500 runs every single year, without a single dip in form lasting long enough to define a season. Other great batters have careers. Kohli has had a sustained campaign of excellence.
The Reason Behind Kohli's Unstoppable Form
But why Kohli is looking unstoppable and hungrier?
'In 2024, his head was so still that even the movement of his feet was balanced, because he was still playing Test cricket. In 2026, he doesn't have to control his hands as much and is letting them go.'
Ravichandran Ashwin's observation cuts right to the heart of what has changed.
When Kohli was playing Test cricket, he carried that discipline into the IPL whether he wanted to or not. The minimal bat movement, the stillness at the crease, the controlled hands -- all of it was trained muscle memory from months spent surviving against the red ball on seaming tracks in England and South Africa. You cannot just switch that off on a Friday night in Bengaluru. The body does what it has been conditioned to do.
Since retiring from Tests, that conditioning has changed. The bat comes down early now, creating what Ashwin calls potential energy. The head still moves well but the hands are free -- they follow through on shots rather than checking themselves at the last moment.
The result is a batter who looks structurally identical to the Kohli of 2016 but hits the ball considerably harder and in more directions.
Kohli's Evolving Approach To Six-Hitting
Dale Steyn, who spent years trying to work him out in international cricket, noticed the other shift -- the six-hitting is no longer accidental. Where Kohli once had a fixed mental menu of shots he would play, he now actively hunts deliveries to clear the rope.
He arrives at the crease with a plan for each bowler that includes going over their head, not just through the gaps. 'He backs himself so much that he is able to execute the aerial shots time and again,' Steyn said. 'This just shows the class of the man.'
Sanjay Manjrekar made a point that is easy to overlook amid the personal milestones.
For years, Kohli batted as though his wicket were the only thing standing between RCB and disaster -- because often it was. The weight of that responsibility slowed him down, forced him into accumulation mode when attack was required, and left the lower order under-used and underprepared.
Something changed. Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Tim David -- batters who can score at 180 to 200 in the death overs -- have been given the room and the balls to develop into genuine match-winners.
Kohli has stepped back from carrying the innings to leading it, which is a different thing. He sets the pace at the top, keeps the required rate honest and then trusts the people below him to finish the job. The result is a freer, more aggressive Kohli and a far more dangerous RCB.
And then there is the fitness, which Manjrekar called out simply and directly. T20 cricket is a young person's game -- fast hands, explosive footwork, the ability to sprint hard and turn for a second run when the fielder hesitates.
Kohli at 37 still does all of this. He has refused to let his body behave like a 37 year old's body and the game has rewarded him for it. The eyes stay sharp, the reflexes stay quick, and the hunger -- that particular Kohli hunger -- shows no sign of dimming.
Kohli's latest knock pushed him further ahead in the Orange Cap race. In just seven innings, he has scored 328 runs and sits firmly at the top of the charts, continuing a season defined by relentless consistency.
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