How Test Retirement Triggered Virat Kohli's T20 Evolution In IPL? R Ashwin Decodes Mystery

IPL 2026: Virat Kohli has given the art of T20 batting a new direction. Despite his retirement from T20Is, the RCB star has remained one of the fiercest batters in IPL and has already shown he is here to rule this format. RCB have made a sensational start to their IPL title defence, having won both their matches with sheer ease.

R Ashwin Breaks Down Virat Kohli's T20 Evolution

Virat has faced severe scrutiny over his form, but his IPL form has been pretty consistent. The 37-year-old has smashed 600+ runs in the last three editions and is already nearing 100 runs after just two matches. Against SRH, Virat looked a bit scratchy at first, and he let Devdutt Padikkal do his thing. But once he got settled, it turned out to be a dominant show by the former Indian captain.

R Ashwin decoded how Virat's retirement from Test cricket opened up a new avenue for him. 

In an interaction with JioStar he said, “Virat was still playing Test cricket in 2024, he was very still, the bat wouldn't move much, but now, here in 2026, the bat is down initially and later he brings it up, which we call potential energy, or the constant movement of the bat, and he is getting into lovely positions, in 2024, his head was so still that even the movement of his feet was balanced, because he was still playing Test cricket then, in 2026, since he doesn't play Test cricket anymore, he doesn't have to control his hands as much and is letting them go, going for more shots.”

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RCB Squad For IPL 2026

Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer, Josh Hazlewood, Mangesh Yadav, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Jordan Cox, Swapnil Singh, Satvik Deswal.

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