IPL 2023: After Babar Azam, Virat Kohli faces Simon Doull's wrath for slowing down before milestone

Virat Kohli’s fine 44-ball 61-run knock against the Lucknow Super Giants on Monday went in vain when RCB failed to defend their mammoth total of 212.

Put in to bat first, Kohli and captain Faf du Plessis built a 96-run partnership for the first wicket, taking turns to tear through LSG’s fierce bowling attack in the powerplay.

The former India captain reached 42 runs in just 25 balls but from there on, Virat took 10 deliveries to complete his half-century.

The slowdown in Kohli’s pace did not go unnoticed. Simon Doull, who was on air during Virat’s innings, called the batter out.

He commented, ‘Kohli was concerned about a personal milestone,’ adding that the ace batter took 10 balls to score eight runs despite starting off like a train.

‘Started off like a train, took 10 balls from 42-50 runs,’ Doull said.

The former New Zealand cricketer did not hold back criticising Kohli saying that there is absolutely no room for personal milestones in this game anymore.

But this is not the first time a player has come under fire by Doull.

Last month during the Pakistan Super League, Simon Doull pulled up Pakistan captain Babar Azam for a similar slow pace before scoring a century.

Azam, who completed 83 runs in just 46 balls, did not reach his century till 16 deliveries later.

‘Rather than putting the team first... the last little while, that's all that happened. Rather than looking for boundaries, still so much firepower to come. Hundreds are brilliant, stats are great, but it has to be team first,’ Doull had said on Babar.

In a coincidence, Babar and Virat, despite scoring a respective century and half-century respectively, were on the losing side.

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