After quitting Tests, Kohli is thinking about what he can achieve with RCB: Mo Bobat

Bengaluru, May 16 (PTI) Retirement from Test cricket has not taken the competitive edge out of Virat Kohli and the star batter is ambitiously focusing on what he can achieve with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in this edition of the IPL, asserted team director Mo Bobat here on Friday.

Kohli bid adieu to the traditional format earlier this week, collecting 9230 runs from 123 Tests with 30 hundreds.

"The first thing to say is Virat's business as usual, as he always is. There's enough of the public and the nation's attention on him, and he doesn't want any more of that. He's ambitious about what we can achieve this year with RCB and that's what he does,” said Bobat during a pre-match press conference.

Bobat was in awe of Kohli the Test batter, an all-weather dominator of oppositions in his peak.

"He should be incredibly proud of what he's done as a Test player for India. RCB as a franchise, we are all incredibly proud of what every one of our players does for India, but in particular him.

"To play 120 plus Test matches and to score nearly 10,000 runs is no mean feat. Also as a captain, his record, 60 per cent win percentage or something like that as captain, again, no mean feat," he added.

As a coach, Bobat had close encounters with Kohli even before he joined the RCB.

Bobat watched the genius of Kohli from close quarters when he was with the England coaching set-up in 2018.

"I can also talk from my previous role as an Englishman working in the English system. He was someone you never wanted to play against, he was always the batter you wanted to get out. You knew that if he was either in the pavilion to come or at the crease, you were in trouble,” he said.

Bobat reminisced about Kohli's seminal performance against England during the 2018 series where the Indian virtuoso hammered 593 runs for five Tests at an average close to 60.

"Some of my most fondest memories watching Test cricket involve him. I'll never forget the 2018 series in England, the Test at Edgbaston, watching Jimmy Anderson and him do battle like two gladiators.

"Jimmy must have bowled nine overs on the try. There were two of the best players in the world doing their things. That's what he's about, he's about those special moments, those inspiring moments," he added.

The Englishman was confident that the fans would continue to shower Kohli with affection and respect whenever he entered the Chinnaswamy stadium.

"I'm sure the fans will show him lots of love this week when they see him again. Just to go back to where I started, he's business as usual, we all are.

"He's spoken to a few of us about things in the last few weeks, but you know what he's like, he's pretty clear on what he wants to do," he noted.

There have been fervent calls on social media for fans to wear white jerseys to honour Kohli the Test cricketer but Bobat said such acts would not have much impact on their game as a whole.

"It's not something we've thought about or talked about too much. I've certainly noticed that the fans have been talking about that a little bit, but I don't think it'll have much of an impact on our play,” he said. PTI