'His best friend is his anger' - KL Rahul explains Virat Kohli's on-field aggression

Aggression has been Virat Kohli‘s strength on the cricket field, then be it while batting or captaining the Indian team. The best example of this was his verbal duel against the former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson during India’s tour of Australia in the 2014/15 season. Apart from that, he has been expressive on several occasions including criticising the official broadcasters SuperSport on the stump mic during the series-deciding third Test against South Africa earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Kohli’s long-time teammate KL Rahul has said that anger is his “best friend”. Giving further clarification on the same, he said that one cannot play a sport like cricket unless he has a fire inside him. At the same time, Rahul also revealed that he never wanted to be too calm while growing up.

There is a fire in everybody: KL Rahul

“As I grew up, I never wanted to be too calm. I think Virat also has said this. His best friend is his anger. You learn how to use that anger and channelize it into proper things. There is a fire in everybody. I think you can’t play a sport like cricket or anything in life if don’t have a fire inside you”, said Rahul while speaking on ‘Breakfast with Champions’.

Kohli has now been relieved from the captaincy burden and will be hoping to rediscover his rhythm on the 22 yards in the ongoing IPL 2022. The 33-year-old  scored an unbeaten 41 runs from 29 deliveries and was also involved in a 118-run stand with skipper Faf du Plessis for the second wicket as RCB posted a stiff total of 202/2 from their 20 overs.

Nonetheless, Punjab Kings chased down the total riding on brilliant performances from the middle-order duo of Shahrukh Khan and Odean Smith. After going down in a high-scoring thriller, the Bengaluru-based franchise would be eager to bounce back in style when they face KKR at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on March 30.