Virat Kohli opening IPL record and stats: Rajat Patidar cricketer stats in IPL history

Virat Kohli opening IPL record: The former captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore will be resuming his role as an opening batter tonight.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have decided to end their experiment of opening the batting with rookie Anuj Rawat after his minimal returns in the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League.

Having scored 129 runs in eight innings at an average of 16.12 and a strike rate of 109.32, Rawat has been left out for RCB’s ninth match of the season against Rajasthan Royals in Pune tonight.

Batter Rajat Patidar, who plays for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket, has been given an opportunity in place of Rawat. Expected to bat at No. 3, Patidar will resume his IPL 2021 role. In what was his maiden IPL season, Patidar had scored 71 runs in four innings.

Not part of their original IPL 2022 squad, Patidar was roped in as a replacement player for injured batter Luvnith Sisodia. Interestingly, the 28-year old player has been given a go ahead of Mahipal Lomror, who was part of their 22-member original IPL 2022 squad.

Virat Kohli opening IPL record (updated)

Royal Challengers captain Faf du Plessis, who won the toss and opted to bowl at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium tonight, confirmed that he will be opening the batting with his predecessor Virat Kohli in this match.

“One change for us – Rajat [Patidar] comes in for Anuj Rawat with Virat [Kohli] going to the top. We want him to get going right at the top, want to see the real Virat play,” du Plessis told Star Sports at the toss.

Playing his 15th IPL season, it is noteworthy that Kohli has opened in at least one match in 12 seasons over the years. In 77 IPL innings at the top of the order, Kohli had scored 2,759 runs at an average and strike rate of 43.10 and 136.44 respectively.

In addition to 18 IPL half-centuries, each one of Kohli’s five centuries have come at the top of the order. Readers must note that Kohli is at the eighth position in the list of most runs by an opening batter in the IPL.

In 11 innings as an opening batter against Rajasthan, Kohli has scored 247 runs at an average and strike rate of 27.44 and 118.75 respectively.

All in all, Kohli has scored 3,037 runs in 85 T20 innings at an average and strike rate of 42.77 and 137.48 respectively as an opening batter.