Veteran cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin shared his views on what he thinks separates the two stalwarts of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Ashwin, a former teammate of both Kohli and Rohit, suggested that the two veteran batters have “contrasting personalities in many ways.” Kohli on Saturday slammed an unbeaten 69 off just 38 balls as defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) beat SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by six wickets in the IPL 2026 season opener.
Ashwin noted that while Kohli thrives on anchoring the innings, Rohit’s philosophy revolves around intent and method.
“Look, I think contrasting personalities in many ways. Virat loves to make those runs. He wants to be the center stage. He wants to do things in a certain way. While Rohit is slightly different, he loves to be a lot more flamboyant and wants to take on the bowlers from the start. I don’t think he’s going to change one bit this season,” said Ashwin.
Meanwhile, Kohli lit up RCB’s 202-run chase with an aggressive 69 off 38 balls at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The former RCB captain’s match-winning knock included five fours and as many sixes.
Apart from him, Impact Player Devdutt Padikkal hammered 61 off 26 balls, with seven fours and four sixes.
Skipper Rajat Patidar played a blistering knock of 12 balls for 31, with three sixes and two fours as Bengaluru won the high-scoring contest by four wickets.
RCB also achieved the total in just 15.4 overs, the fastest 200-plus run-chase in IPL history.
Just like Kohli, Rohit made a fantastic return to T20 cricket with the bat, slamming a spectacular half-century for Mumbai Indians against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday.
Despite dropping a catch earlier in the game, Rohit more than made up for it with a blazing fifty to help MI put up 80 runs in the powerplay.
Rohit ultimately ended up making 78 runs off 38 balls, getting out in the 12th over to Vaibhav Arora after a stunning catch was taken by Anukul Roy.