De Villiers says Kohli’s current ‘new avatar’ surpasses his 2016 peak
Right after the Thiruvananthapuram ODI against the West Indies, former South Africa captain AB de Villiers said Virat Kohli’s current ‘new avatar’ is better than his 2016 peak. The remark followed Kohli’s unbeaten 139 off 88 balls in Trivandrum as he moved towards 15,000 ODI runs, and came after Kohli had described his present phase as a personal challenge: “I've got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and play a gear or two higher," said Kohli.
Kohli’s Trivandrum performance came amid a deliberate change in approach as he now concentrates on one international format and the IPL, a shift that became more visible after his Test retirement last year when he recorded two ducks in Australia before salvaging that series with a fifty. The change gathered momentum during the South Africa series; since the start of the three matches against the Proteas Kohli has amassed 854 runs from his 12 ODI innings at a strike rate of 117.63. That run of form has been reflected across his recent innings and framed De Villiers’ assessment.
In the opening ODI against the West Indies in Trivandrum, Kohli struck 10 fours and nine sixes on his way to an unbeaten 139 off 88 balls as part of his progression toward 15,000 ODI runs. The innings was described in the source as the latest standout in a sequence of prolific scores, and it underlined the aggressive scoring pattern he has displayed this season.
Across his last 10 ODI innings Kohli has accumulated 825 runs, a total the source says ranks among the game’s most productive 10-innings stretches, with only six such sequences having produced more runs and two of those belonging to Kohli himself from 2012 and 2018. The report contrasts that recent output with Kohli’s 2016–2018 peak, when he scored 3,401 runs from 66 matches at a strike-rate close to 100 and hit 43 sixes; in the current year his strike-rate is reported as 117.94 with 17 sixes.
Asked to compare eras, De Villiers said: "Yeah, that's a good question. It's difficult to say. I think it is a better version because of the way he's so relaxed. And out there in the middle, you can almost see he's completely free." He added that Kohli "showed signs of that at the last ICC Champions Trophy in the UAE. I started seeing him play a different role, and then he got stuck a little bit again, going back to old habits, and then just sort of let go completely again."
De Villiers also suggested fans are seeing a side of Kohli rarely on display and commented on the impact within the dressing room, saying: "But that's the way I love Virat. And I've always, in interviews, said that there's a side of him that people don't know. And I think we're seeing that side more than ever now, where he's just completely focused almost on other people." "And he realises that all he can do is just go out there and express his talents and let the fans and the people around the world enjoy that for one last time, or for the next two years or three or five years. I don't know how long," said De Villiers. "But I love seeing this side of him. And I think it must be an incredible experience to share a dressing room with him as a youngster now. I think they are learning from him more than ever, being in this state of mind."
De Villiers pointed to instinct and decision-making as drivers of Kohli’s recent form: "But yes, I think because he's so free, he's making sounder decisions out there. He's not so intense, he's not overthinking the game. He's going a lot on gut feel, it seems, and generally, the gut feel is right. Your instinct takes over, and he's played this game all his life." "So when Virat plays with his instinct, he's pretty much unstoppable. So, well, it's quite scary to think of where this will go and how good and how big of an impact he's going to have for Team India in the 2027 World Cup," said De Villiers. Kohli sits in the top four for most runs in ODIs this year with 552 from nine matches, and the next confirmed stop for the Indian team is a series in New Zealand.
