Dinesh Karthik Marvels at Virat Kohli's Remarkable Annual Reinvention in IPL 2026

Kohli returns to his original home venue - the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi - where defending champions RCB will take on Delhi Capitals on Monday evening. Kohli boasts of an average of 66.8 with seven fifties in 11 IPL innings in New Delhi and needs just 11 runs to become the first player to reach 9000 runs in IPL history.

He currently has 8989 runs, which clearly puts him ahead of Rohit Sharma (7183), Shikhar Dhawan (6769), David Warner (6565), and KL Rahul (5579). "Now with Virat Kohli, the fact is that that man goes back every year and he is assessing what he has done.

"He almost comes with a very stubborn plan about how he wants to go about it, and he gets it done not on match days alone, but the way he practices as well. He has a method to how he goes about it, and he's constantly checking himself in practice, and there are certain days he'll bat more, certain days he'll bat less, and he has so much experience.

"Credit to him that man constantly rediscovers with every passing year, and for him to keep up with the pace of this game and some of the newer players are batting at insane strike rates, and he is going shoulder to shoulder with them and producing match-winning performances.

"So I marvel at how he rediscovers himself every year almost and that is such a big learning for me as well and I'm sure and I wish a lot of the players who watch him play also learn that with every passing year, people are looking at you and they'll come with a plan and you need to counter it with your strengths and he's done that very nicely so far," said Karthik in the pre-match press conference on Sunday.

In IPL 2026, Kohli has 328 runs from seven innings at an average of 54.7 and a strike rate of 163, with a highest score of 81. He has been in sublime touch in chases this season, scoring two of his three fifties, with an average of 99.5 and a strike rate of 172 in such situations.

Against DC, Kohli has amassed 1149 runs in 31 innings at an average of 47.8, including 11 fifties. With four 50-plus scores in his last five innings at Kotla, he will be keen to extend his dominance at the venue. Karthik recalled how this year's U19 World Cup winners, Vihaan Malhotra and Kanishk Chouhan, have been soaking in the experience of seeing Kohli go about his business in the practice sessions.

"It's quite amazing and a learning experience for any young boy watching. I'm sure the likes of Vihaan and Kanishk have looked at him and been like look at how Virat bhai is practising and what he is doing differently. They've asked me as well what I think Virat bhai is doing differently from last year.

"So I was telling him this is what he's doing and as a young player when you watch somebody like Virat Kohli practice, I think it is first of all they're lucky and at the same time it is such a learning experience even though they've not got game time for looking at somebody like Virat Kohli closely and seeing how serious he is about his practice and how he has a plan when he does practice," he added.

Karthik also confirmed that Phil Salt will miss Monday's match after being ruled out of their previous game against the Gujarat Titans due to an injury. "It's the same for this game as well; he's injured for the moment."

- IANS