Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spin-bowling coach Malolan Rangarajan believes that ‘genius’ Virat Kohli doesn’t need to put in extra yards to improve his batting against left-arm spin or leg spin. Spin was Kohli’s popular weakness before IPL 2024. For example, he had a strike-rate of 119.79 against left-arm spin in IPL 2023, which improved to 131.19 in 2024 and has shot up to a brilliant 146.15 this season. The change started to come in the second half of the 2024 season, when RCB were stuck at the bottom of the table and went on a winning streak to eventually sneak into the playoffs spots. “It wasn’t only Virat last season who was not batting at the desired strike rate. It was the whole team. So I think the whole team got together. And that’s precisely what happened. That’s part one,” said Malolan on the eve of the away game against Delhi Capitals here on Sunday, as quoted by PTI. “Part two is about Virat Kohli as the individual. He does not need to go and practice extra against left-arm spin and leg spin. He’s batted for 20-25 years. He’s a genius. He just has to decide what he wants to do and how he wants to take down a particular bowler. And it’s very evident that someone like Virat, even after having played for so long, he’s constantly looking at what more he can do. Which is, to me, unbelievable,” he added. “The attitude with which he comes into every training session, every match. So, Virat, I don’t think he did anything specifically physically (on his spin play). Batting more of left-arm spin, batting more leg spin. It was just the group coming together and acknowledging the fact that we weren’t good enough last year,” Malolan went on further. Kohli is currently the second-highest run-scorer of the season with 392 runs at an average of 65.33. ‘RCB not inclined to have an anchor’ The coach was also asked about his opinion on the need and role of anchors in today’s T20 cricket, with regards to RCB’s needs. “Role of an anchor, I can only talk about how we are thinking. We rather address it as how we can assess a situation and adapt accordingly. Because in the days of an anchor, I don’t know if 200 scores were breached as easily. Chinnaswamy has been challenging this year as a pitch. Last year also it wasn’t as high scoring as it was previously. We’ve realised that there might be a formula of how we score runs. “You look at games we’ve played against CSK. We’re not particularly inclined to think about having an anchor. Because you see the way Virat is batting, he’s more aggressive. Every time there’s an opportunity for him to step on the pedal, he does it. Salt, we all know how he bats. It’s only IPL and any T20 cricket is about how you’re able to shift the momentum,” the former Tamil Nadu spinner added.