5 min readUpdated: Mar 29, 2026 06:28 PM IST
Virat Kohli is a hitter of great sixes rather than a great six-hitter. Maximums apportion for only 2640 off his 13612 T20s runs, that is roughly one fifth of a format defined by the endowment to clear the fence. But his sixes, in the barrage of sixes in the IPL the mind fails to register (forget recount), offer immense recall value. If IPL, and by extension T20s, have de-romanticised the six and made it humdrum, Kohli has revived the romance of hitting a six in this version.
The RCB–SRH encounter saw 25 sixes sent to every corner of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. But none would be remembered as much as Kohli’s straight six off Eshan Malinga in the seventh over. It was almost a checked-drive. Kohli pausing in his follow through, not going fully with the stroke, as though the bat had an afterthought. He made half a forward stride, turned his body front-on so that the bat could flow straight and sweet. The ball was not full, it was on a length. Kohli drove that on the up and off that length. Often he hits sixes flat, what with his bottom-hand accent and the whip of the wrists. Here, his wrists did not turn. It led the arms and bat to flow and follow a straight line.
In some ways, the stroke reminded of the iconic six off Haris Rauf in MCG, except that he struck this straighter and far less violently. There, the weight was on the back-foot, he backed off a trifle to manufacture the room, his body staggered in the follow through in the power he had injected. Here, the movements and flourish were minimalistic. Both, though, were struck on the rise. To get full control when the ball is rising onto the batsman is difficult, even though the Bangalore strip was not super quick. Nonetheless, there are chances that he could end up spooning the ball in the air, or toe-ending, or missing it altogether and getting bowled. The moment of contact has to be precise. Especially when striking from a static position; especially when the bat traces a parabola, not the full circle.
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When a batsman is stepping out and hitting the ball, he comes with momentum. When he muscles through the leg-side, he generates power from the bat-swing, bottom hand and the shoulders. Here, it’s the alignment of body parts and bat that enables the ball to hit the bat’s sweetest spot. Every element has to be millimetre-exact. Even the motif of the six seems different, it’s the flaunting of thrilling technical brilliance rather than an expression of superiority, like the swing of a pendulum and not the hack of an axe. Those varieties of sixes would arrive later.
It was an ode to Sachin Tendulkar, the master of straight sixes. Few batsmen hit straight sixes as sweetly as Tendulkar did in his peak, especially with a parabolic bat-swing, and the left-elbow nodding at the skies.
In the commentary box, Kevin Pietersen, himself a king of spectacular sixes, could not stop raving. “It is timing, but you’ve got to have that time to create the timing. You’ve got to get yourself into a position. That’s what I mean – he was in that position. He popped his elbow up to the sky, found the middle of the bat,” he discerned.
He essayed four sixes, besides this. Every stroke was different. He slog-swept, swat-flicked, charged down the deck to the spinner and thumped a medium pacer flat over his head. For a self-confessed shy six-hitter—he once said that “I’m not someone who comes to the stadium wanting to entertain people hitting the ball in the air”—the range is bewildering. Kohli has almost 360-degree access to hit sixes. He resists the new-age strokes like the scoop, ramp and reverse variants, but the orthodox routes suffice.
His six-hitting frequency too has spiked in the league. In the past three seasons, he has hit 73 sixes, one every 20 balls. In this period, he has out-matched a perceivably more natural six-hitter, Rohit Sharma (63). It’s more than his combined haul in the six episodes (70) before the purple six-patch.
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It’s a fascinating story arc, too. In the autumn of his career, the inscrutable general of Indian batting in the post-Tendulkar era has discovered a new love. To hit sixes. It once seemed an act of labour, an occupational necessity in the shortest format, but it’s more organic these days. The album of memorable sixes is thickening. Even though he might never be a great six-hitter, to be counted among the Gayles and Pollards of the world, he would be remembered as a hitter of great sixes. As the straight six off Eshan Malinga.
