'Things will be little different for Virat': Kohli warned before RCB's IPL 2026 season

New Delhi: As Royal Challengers Bengaluru open their IPL 2026 campaign, all eyes will once again fixate on Virat Kohli, but the chatter around the talismanic batter carries a fresh nuance this year. For the first time since the tournament’s inception, Kohli will enter the competition having fully stepped away from Test cricket, a reality former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan believes could subtly alter his T20 rhythm.

“This time, things will be a little different for Kohli,” Pathan said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “For the first time, he will play the IPL having completely retired from Test cricket. He is playing only one format. It is not easy for anyone.”

Pathan, who has tracked Kohli’s career arc from teenage prodigy to modern great, stressed that while the 37-year-old’s one-day returns remain imperious even after extended breaks, the frenetic nature of T20 cricket presents a unique test. “In T20s, when you play the aggressor and come in not having played a lot, it will be challenging. But he has faced many challenges before as well. I am very excited to see how he will go forward this season.”

The conversation is not merely academic. Last season Kohli’s recalibrated approach—trading his customary anchor role for outright aggression—was widely credited with tilting the balance in RCB’s favour as they captured a long-awaited title. Pathan underlined that transformation as pivotal. “When they won last season, his strike rate also went up. He did not play anchor but took the role of an aggressor. It was a very big factor. They will expect even this time that he keeps up the same form.”

Kohli’s identity remains inseparable from the Bangalore franchise. “Virat Kohli and RCB is an identity that goes together,” Pathan observed. “He started with RCB and is still playing for them. He has delivered brilliant performances. It was also a golden period in his career when he captained the team; there were a lot of brilliant performances.”

With the IPL’s landscape growing ever more demanding, the coming weeks will reveal whether Kohli’s single-format focus sharpens his T20 edge or forces a recalibration of the swashbuckling template that served RCB so well in their title-winning 2025 campaign.