"You might say I don't praise Virat Kohli much" - Aakash Chopra lauds RCB batter's knock in IPL 2025 win vs RR

Former India player Aakash Chopra has lauded Virat Kohli for scoring a match-winning half-century in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2025 clash against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). While observing that fans might complain that he doesn't praise Kohli enough, Chopra noted that the former RCB skipper has always been a consistent performer.

Kohli scored 70 runs off 42 deliveries as RCB set RR a 206-run target in Match 42 of IPL 2025 in Bengaluru on Thursday, April 24. The hosts then restricted the visitors to 194/9 to register an 11-run win, their first victory in four home games this season.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the cricketer-turned-commentator acknowledged that he probably doesn't appreciate Kohli as much as he should, potentially because the RCB opener scores runs regularly.

"Virat Kohli is consistently scoring runs. This was probably his fifth fifty of the season, and he is looking good for many, many more. He is batting extremely well. You might say I don't praise Virat Kohli much. Virat Kohli is the Reserve Bank. He keeps printing notes every time," he said (4:20).

Chopra added that RCB's fate has never been dependent on Kohli's performances, but on what his teammates do.

"The problem was never about Virat Kohli. This franchise's future and present will be decided by what people around him do. He has made the present by asking them to keep players around him who can drive the game fast, as he is dependable, the run machine, and the modern master. I thought a hundred was loading, but not to be, and it didn't make a difference," he observed.

Virat Kohli struck eight fours and two sixes during his 70-run knock. The modern batting great was caught by Nitish Rana at cover off Jofra Archer's bowling when he seemed headed to a century.

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"Devdutt Padikkal has come as a breath of fresh air" - Aakash Chopra lauds batter's knock in RCB's IPL 2025 win vs RR

Devdutt Padikkal scored a quickfire half-century in RCB's IPL 2025 clash against RR. [P/C: Getty]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra praised Devdutt Padikkal for continuing his consistent run for RCB.

"Devdutt Padikkal has come as a breath of fresh air. He is batting extremely well. He has sworn that he will bat well only for this franchise and not for any of the others because he went to the Rajasthan Royals and the Lucknow Super Giants, and didn't score runs there," he said.

The former India opener pointed out that the Karnataka batter was the aggressor during his partnership with Virat Kohli.

"He has returned here and scored runs again. He used to score runs when he played here last time. A lot of runs were scored in the middle overs, they were scoring at almost 11 runs per over, and Devdutt Padikkal had taken the onus to score those runs. He was moving at the rate of knots," Chopra observed.

Devdutt Padikkal scored 50 runs off 27 deliveries with the help of four fours and three sixes. He added 91 runs with Virat Kohli for the second wicket before Tim David (23 off 15) and Jitesh Sharma's (20* off 10) cameos took the home team to a 200-plus total.