IPL 2022 | 'He might take a couple more games to find his feet'- Kevin Pietersen on Virat Kohli

Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen has opined that former India and RCB skipper Virat Kohli is struggling to make the transition from being the leader who ran the show to being just another 'soldier'.

Kohli relinquished leadership duties of the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the end of the last season, citing workload issues.

Before relinquishing the captaincy duties of his IPL franchise, Kohli had given up the captaincy of the Indian T20I team and subsequently the reigns of the Test team after being replaced by Rohit Sharma in the ODI format.

However, King Kohli has struggled to find consistency with the bat despite giving up captaincy.

The former India skipper started the IPL season with a blistering unbeaten 41 (29) against the Punjab Kings. The right-handed batter showed signs of his former self when he scored a match-winning 46 against the Mumbai Indians following a couple of low scores.

However, poor shot selection and miscommunication with partners had paved the way for his premature demise in the rest of the fixtures.

The legendary batsman was dismissed for a first-ball duck by Dushmantha Chameera in the ongoing encounter against the Lucknow Supergiants.

Once again, his desire to feel for the delivery outside the off-stump, which he could have easily left, proved to be his downfall as he ended up giving a simple catch at point.

Pietersen, who was on commentary at the time of Kohli's dismissal, said:

"Virat Kohli, he likes to be the star of the show. But now Faf du Plessis is the star of the show. He is the one who is running the ship. He gets the big suite in the hotel, or maybe no, Virat might still get a bigger room than anyone else. However, it's very difficult to become a soldier again. You are not the one in the middle who is making the big decisions. You are not the one who is commanding respect," 

"When you become a captain, you start to get looked at completely differently by fans, by the players, your teammates and the coaching staff. When you come back in, all of them will monitor whether you can become a good soldier again," he said.

"So I think for Virat, this is tough. You can see that in his performances at the moment. He is taking time to find his feet. He might take a couple more games to find his feet,"

Interestingly, before the match, Pietersen commented on Kohli's warm-up routine, stating that the 33-year-old looks focused on getting the job done.

"I watched his warm-up. He means business. No smiling, no nothing, no cuddles, no hellos... He is like 'I am focussed, I want to get the job done," Pietersen added.

Kohli has managed just 119 runs in 7 innings at an average of 19.83 and a strike rate of 123.96. His fans and the RCB management will hope that the champion cricketer regains his mojo in the forthcoming fixtures.