'IPL woes won't affect Kohli's WC'

Kuldeep Yadav, the Kolkata Knight Riders spinner, is confident that Virat Kohli's international form will not be affected by Royal Challengers Bangalore's poor showing in the Indian Premier League 2019 so far.

Virat Kohli's Bangalore side have had a disastrous start to the IPL season, losing six out of six matches to sit at the bottom of the table, as of yesterday.

As captain, Kohli has been under great pressure and that might not be a good mindset to get into with the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 set to begin on 30 May in England, soon after the conclusion of the IPL.

Bangalore's chances of making the playoffs seem rather bleak, but Kuldeep, one of India's leading bowlers, feels the disappointment from a poor IPL campaign won't affect Kohli's hunger to do well for India at the World Cup.

"He's one of the best in the world, has broken so many records I don't think he will be affected by this,” Kuldeep said. “He has a different hunger when he plays for India. Everyone is highly motivated to do well in the World Cup."

Kohli is one of only two players – the other being Suresh Raina – to have scored over 5000 runs in IPL history. He has shown good form this season too with 203 runs at a strike-rate of 126.08. Kuldeep feels Bangalore's woes have little to do with Kohli's form.

“With 5000-plus runs, individually he's doing his best", said the wrist-spinner, who is ranked No.7 on the MRF Tyres ICC Men's ODI rankings for bowlers. "But maybe his team combination is not clicking. Maybe somewhere down the line he's lacking in team combination. He's in great touch and if he keeps doing well like that it will be good for India in World Cup."