IPL 2024 Orange Cap: Virat Kohli continues on top spot with fair margin

MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai has not been RCB’s main man Virat Kohli's favourite hunting ground. During his 12 innings here before the inaugural match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, he had scored 362 runs here, his highest score of 58 coming way back in 2013. (Image source: X)

Virat Kohli, the current holder of the Orange Cap, has amassed an impressive tally of 634 runs in 12 innings, joining KL Rahul as the only batsmen to achieve 600-plus runs in four IPL seasons.

Sunil Narine of Kolkata Knight Riders surged into the top five run-scorers of IPL 2024, slamming his debut T20 century against Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens. His score stands at 276.

Meanwhile, Riyan Parag from Rajasthan Royals with 318 runs became the second player to surpass 300 runs this season. Rajasthan's skipper Sanju Samson slipped to fourth place with 276 runs.  Rohit Sharma holds the fifth position after his century against CSK, accumulating 261 runs.

Kohli maintains his position at the top of the run-getters list, having accumulated 319 runs in 6 games. He leads over RR’s Riyan Parag, who has 261 runs in 5 games. GT skipper Shubman Gill holds the third position with 255 runs from 6 fixtures. Following him is RR captain Sanju Samson with 246 runs in five games. GT opener Sai Sudharsan ranks fifth with 226 runs in 6 outings.

Earlier, Virat Kohli's 77 off 49 balls and two catches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Monday's (March 25) Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture was redemption. RCB won the match against the Gujarat Titans with four balls remaining. With this high score, Kohli made the 100th 50-plus score of his T20 career. He also pulled ahead in the race to maximum IPL 2024 runs and the Orange Cap. He's currently leading the pack with 98 runs across two IPL matches so far in 2024. The second highest run-scorer so far this season is Sam Curran for the Punjab Kings with a total of 86 runs across two matches and a highest score of 63 so far. Yet, the IPL season didn't on a bang for Kohli.

Virat Kohli's return to cricket after Akaay was born

The opening fixture of the 17th Indian Premier League (IPL) marked Virat Kohli's return to cricket after a period of about two months during which he celebrated the birth of his second child on February 15, 2024. As it turned out, though, King Kohli's 20-ball 21 in that match against five-time winners and defending champions, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), under new CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad, couldn't help the Bengaluru franchise much in Match 1 of IPL 2024. RCB teammate Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik built a 50-ball 95 partnership to put 173 on the scoreboard. But in the end, CSK won by six wickets, with eight balls remaining.

To be sure, Chepauk (MA Chidambaram Stadium) in Chennai is not RCB’s main man Virat Kohli's favourite hunting ground. During his 12 innings here before the inaugural match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, he had scored 362 runs, his highest score of 58 coming way back in 2013.

In fact, Kohli hadn’t featured in a T20 International fixture through all of last year. In January this year, he was part of two T20I matches against Afghanistan where he scored 29 runs in the first and was dismissed on the very first delivery in the second.

But that shouldn’t have taken anything away from Kohli and his abilities.

Virat Kohli's IPL record

During the IPL last year, Kohli scored 639 runs that featured two centuries and six fifties. At the ODI World Cup in November 2023 where India finished runners-up, he was the top run-getter by a mile (765 runs) at an average of 95.62, with Rohit Sharma coming in second at 597 runs. There are those who don’t think much of him as a T20 player, but he has a strike rate of 138.15 and an average of 51.75 in T20Is. More importantly, each time Kohli is in the middle, anything is possible.

It may take a while for Kohli to settle in, considering he hasn’t played much cricket since the ODI World Cup last year - just two Test matches in South Africa and the two T20Is against Afghanistan at home. Baby duties can also be a hectic proposition. But he is sure to return rejuvenated from his well-deserved break alongside the family and will be raring to go.

There’s a lot to look out for in the ongoing season of IPL, but Kohli will certainly be the talking point on his return to cricket. With the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled for June, his selection will depend on the performance that he puts in over the next few months. Besides, there’s also the IPL final jinx to address, RCB having missed out on the title on three occasions in the past. And then there’s Kohli the leader, or King Kohli as they call him, and how he can inspire his troops to make it a season to remember.