Kohli laughs off Gayle's run of outs

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has no doubt star West Indian opener Chris Gayle will snap his current run of poor form and deliver when it matters most during the Indian Premier League.

Gayle is one quarter of arguably the most destructive top four in world cricket along with Kohli, South Africa's AB de Villiers and Australian allrounder Shane Watson.

The RCB have plundered totals of 227 and 191 in their two matches of the 2016 IPL so far, the start-studded line-up hard to contain on a flat surface at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

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While Kohli, De Villiers and Watson have all fired, Gayle has managed just a single run in his two matches, bringing to 14 his total runs scored from his past five T20 outings.

The powerful opener struggled for runs in the latter stages of the West Indies' stunning victory at the recent ICC World T20, posting scores of 4, 5 and 4 to finish the tournament.

It means he's now scored just 14 runs from 19 balls in his past five outings, including three fours.

But having opened the World T20 with a match-winning century against England, his 17th hundred in an extraordinary 20-over career, Kohli has no doubt his opening partner will fire sooner rather than later.

"Well we got to 230 without him firing (against the Sunrisers Hyderabad last week) and then we almost got 200 without him firing today, so I don't know what's going to happen when he fires," Kohli said with a smile after his side was unable to defend their huge total against the Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.

"Chris takes a lot of pride in playing for RCB and performing for us. He has been a standout performer for us.

"People expect a lot from him in every game in T20 cricket because he's so good at it. He's got 17 centuries and that's no joke. Expectations are high and he wants to live up to them.

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"I'm sure he'll come good at some stage in the tournament. Maybe in the most important stage if not the first few games, when we need him the most and he'll go out and get a hundred for us.

"I'm not too worried about his form. The other guys are stepping up nicely and that's what this game is all about.

"When someone doesn't do well, others have to go out there and grab the opportunity."

Gayle's record of 17 centuries in 246 Twenty20 matches is an incredible 10 more than Brendon McCullum in second place, who has seven T20 tons from just 24 games less than the Jamaican.

Gayle also has 55 fifties to his name, 11 more than any other player, and has hit an incredible 637 sixes in his career, an average of 2.6 per innings.

But while he hasn't fired so far, the three other members of the much-hyped RCB top four has been in imperious form so far in the tournament.

Kohli (75 from 51 deliveries and 79 from 48), De Villiers (82 from 42 and 55 from 33) and Watson (19 from 8 and 33 from 19) have accounted for 343 of the RCB's 418 runs scored, hitting 32 fours and 19 sixes between them.

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"We obviously want everyone to score runs but that does not happen all the time," Kohli said.

"This is one advantage of having someone like Shane in the middle order along with AB and myself.

"Having four guys who are international players one after the other always helps because you can rely on those four players to tackle situations and turn the game around for you and that's what we've done with the bat in this game and the last game."

The Royal Challengers will next take on defending champions Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.