Days before the BCCI selection committee announces the 15-member squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup in June, several cricket pundits have raised question marks on the strike rate of former India skipper Virat Kohli at the ongoing Indian Premier League.

The criticisms grew louder after the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter scored 51 off 43 balls in their recent win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He scored 32 runs from his first 18 balls but slowed down during the middle overs to add the remaining 19 runs in the next 25 balls, and thus finished with a strike rate of 118.60.

The 35-year-old came back strongly with an unbeaten 70 off 44 balls in RCB’s win against Gujarat Titans on Sunday afternoon. He batted at a strike rate of 159.09 and hit six fours and three sixes, to go past the 500-run mark for the 7th time in his IPL career.

While pundits have often questioned Kohli’s strike rates, and his tendency to get stuck against spin, the veteran right-hander hit back at his critics, saying, “I think all the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones who love talking about this stuff. But, for me, it’s about winning the game for the team. And there is a reason you have done this for 15 years,” Kohli said.

Spin has troubled Kohli before Sunday in this season of IPL. Before the Titans match, he had scored only 38 runs off 37 balls against spin in the Powerplay. And keeping that stat in mind, Shubman Gill, the Gujarat skipper, employed his spin duo of Rashid Khan and Sai Kishore to bowl the fifth and sixth over of the Powerplay.

Kohli showed he was up for the challenge as he smashed Rashid for a four off his second delivery against him before taking Kishore to the cleaners, and made sure to settle the ‘spin debate’ once and for all. The veteran right-hander took Kishore down with two back-to-back sixes – one over long-off on the back foot and the second over mid-wicket that he celebrated with a punch in the air.

“I am not quite sure if you have not been in that situation yourself, to sit and speak about the game from a box. I don’t think it’s the same thing. For me, it’s about doing the job for the team.”

“People can sit and talk about their own ideas and assumptions of the game. But those who have done it, day in and day out, they know what they are doing. It’s kind of muscle memory for me,” he said.

Kohli scored 61 runs off 34 balls against the Titans spin trio of Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, and Sai Kishore at a strike rate of 179.41. And interestingly 22 of those 61 runs came in using sweep shots, a stroke that Kohli seldom plays. As selection day looms, his knock has served a timely reminder to the national selectors.

Kohli also finished the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022 as the leading run-scorer with 296 runs from six innings and could once again be a key factor as the Indian team hopes to end the decade-long title-drought in the global showpiece event in the US and the Caribbean from June 1.