Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batting coach Dinesh Karthik talked about the art of batting across formats and how former India captain Virat Kohli was important for it.
Kohli is generally considered to be among the rare category of batsmen who has the skill to perform consistently in all three formats of cricket – Test, ODI and T20I – at the same time. Kohli is one of only three batsmen to be ranked No. 1 in the ICC batting rankings in all three formats – albeit not simultaneously.
There will be no other Virat Kohli, I can promise you this – Dinesh Karthik
Karthik was talking to sports anchor Mayanti Langer on RCB Podcast. When Karthik was asked about the skills required to be successful in all formats of the game, he replied that there is too much variety across all formats to be successful in all formats with the same skills.
“To perform well in T20 requires the exact opposite skill set to that required to perform well in Test cricket. I don’t think there will be too many ‘all-format’ batsmen or bowlers out there,” he said.
Langer pointed out that Kohli is among those rare class of batsmen who average more than 50 in all three formats together, to which Karthik replied that there would be only one Virat Kohli. “You will never find another Virat Kohli, I can promise you that. It’s one of those folklores,” Karthik concluded.
Virat Kohli in IPL 2026
Like in 2024 and 2025, Virat Kohli is currently the leading run-scorer for RCB in IPL 2026. Currently, he has 379 runs in the tournament at an average of 54 and a strike rate of 165. This means he is still the fifth-highest run-scorer in IPL 2026 so far.
Kohli also won the Orange Cap on several occasions this year. He has also scored 3 fifties with the highest score of 81 in the tournament. In this tournament too, Kohli has jointly the most number of fours.
Kohli has developed a penchant for breaking records throughout his career, and the same is true in IPL 2026. At the beginning of this season, Kohli became the first player to score 9,000 runs in IPL. He also entered the elusive club of 300 sixes in the IPL, which includes only Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma apart from him.
RCB’s form in IPL 2026 and next matches
RCB is currently placed second in the IPL 2026 points table. The defending champions have won six from nine matches, giving them 12 points. RCB lost their last match as a spirited bowling performance from Gujarat Titans led to a batting collapse. The small target of 155 was never a real challenge for GT’s batting in Ahmedabad.
RCB’s next match will be against Lucknow Super Giants on May 7 in Lucknow. LSG are struggling badly in the tournament, and RCB have already defeated the Rishabh Pant-led side once in IPL 2026.
Also read: RCB players leave for Maldives for holidays in the middle of IPL 2026
