Virat Kohli is like a molten lava coming out – Dinesh Karthik on what fuels the run-machine

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru played out another roller-coaster season that saw them finishing the tournament after suffering a defeat in the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals. Despite crashing out of the tournament, RCB had their own sets of silver linings which saw Virat Kohli finishing with the Orange Cap while they found a handful of incredible talents in Will Jacks, Yash Dayal and Swapnil Singh.

Seasoned RCB wicket-keeper, Dinesh Karthik also showed why he is deemed as one of the finest finishers at the moment. The bond between DK and Virat has always been pretty tight and at the end of the season both the players expressed admiration for each other. VK was vocal about his first meeting with the Finisher Supreme in a RCB Bold Diaries video while DK spoke at length about the importance of Virat Kohli to RCB in a video on Cricbuzz.

DK said, “Virat Kohli would like to write a book on how he was this year. He started okay. Thanks to people like Simon (Doull) and a few others who really spurred him on. And you know that side of Virat Kohli. I think that he thrives on that. He is someone who inadvertently holds on to certain things to do well. He loves people proving wrong. Even though he might not come out and say this, it really fuels his passion. He is like a molten lava coming out. He is fiery and you don’t want to be anywhere close to him because you are going to get burnt for sure. He’s done this time and time again.”

Karthik further added, “I genuinely feel that some people don't mind him proving them wrong because he is that good to watch when he comes on. You can speak of RCB, the success and all of that. However, this is not happening without that man. I am not saying that it is just his batting. It is the intimidating feeling that he gives when is on the field. When he pushes fielders, if you ever had one of those mics in the time-outs, my God! There will be a lot of beeps for sure (laughs).”

He continued with a laugh, “Ben Stokes will be mentioned a bit. But if you look past all that, the intensity he carries and he expects each player to do well. Man, I doff my hat to him. To be doing that in the 17th year of IPL, I stand up and applaud the man because RCB and his fans should be grateful to have a guy like that. He is built differently. That is what propels him and he does anything similar to what he has done for RCB, which he does and even more for the country…”