Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) sit on top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, thanks to a blistering run that saw them win 8 of the first 11 games. While the entire team deserves the credit for an all-round show that puts them on the brink of playoff qualification, a huge credit goes to Virat Kohli, who has donned different hats this season, depending upon the situation of the game. Despite being the Orange Cap holder at present this season, Kohli hasn’t been immune to criticism.

Some former cricketers like Sanjay Manjrekar, Virender Sehwag, and Sunil Gavaskar have pointed out the need for Kohli to show more acceleration while scoring runs in the middle. The criticism hasn’t only been showered on Kohli this year, but also over the last couple of seasons.

However, Kohli’s former teammate, AB de Villiers, decided to give it back to critics, highlighting how adaptive the RCB star is in producing the brand of cricket that his team needs.

“Virat is always there. He is Mr. Safety for RCB. When he is there, you don’t have to fear. Never fear when Virat is near. That is the story. Nothing has ever changed, and what I want to tell all of you media people, I haven’t forgotten. I have the brain of an elephant. To all my journalist friends out there, I love you guys. But remember when you said Virat bats too slow, right? Virat is there batting at almost a 200 strike rate last night. Eat that,” he said in a video shared on Instagram.

With 505 runs to his name in 11 matches, Kohli is the top-scoring batter this campaign. He averages 63.13 with a strike-rate of 143.46. In the last match against CSK in Bengaluru, Virat scored at a rate of 187.87, adding 62 runs to the team’s total in just 33 balls.