Right after the recent Thiruvananthapuram ODI against the West Indies, Virat Kohli made it clear that he's embracing a fresh challenge in his career, one where he believes he can push his game to yet another level. "I've got a challenge at this stage of my career to kind of up the ante and play a gear or two higher," Kohli said. For fans who witnessed the carnage that night, those words are pure music. On his way to reaching 15,000 ODI runs, the Indian superstar dismantled the West Indies bowling attack with ridiculous ease. He smashed 10 fours and nine sixes, racing to 139 off just 88 deliveries.

This performance signaled a real shift in how Kohli approaches his batting. These days, he's only playing one international format along with the IPL. The change wasn't obvious last year; after announcing his Test retirement, he bagged two ducks in Australia before salvaging that series with a fifty. But something clicked during the South Africa series, and the transformation kicked into full gear. Since that three-match series against the Proteas began, Kohli has piled up 854 runs from 12 ODI innings at a strike rate of 117.63. His unbeaten 139 in the opening ODI against the West Indies in Trivandrum was just the latest highlight in this remarkable purple patch.

In fact, Kohli has accumulated 825 runs across his last 10 innings alone. That puts him among the most prolific 10-innings stretches in ODI history; only six such sequences have produced more runs. And incredibly, two of those six belong to Kohli himself, from his sensational runs in 2012 and 2018.

'Relaxed and Completely Free'
Speaking exclusively to Sports Today, AB de Villiers said the current version of Kohli is better simply because he seems relaxed and completely free.

The South African legend noted that he saw glimpses of this avatar during the 2025 Champions Trophy, but felt the Indian star got stuck and reverted to old habits. "Yeah, that's a good question. It's difficult to say. I think it is a better version because of the way he's so relaxed. And out there in the middle, you can almost see he's completely free," de Villiers said.

"He showed signs of that at the last ICC Champions Trophy in the UAE. I started seeing him play a different role, and then he got stuck a little bit again, going back to old habits, and then just sort of let go completely again."

More Still to Come From Kohli
The period from 2016 to 2018 is widely considered the peak of Kohli's career. During that stretch, he struck at close to 100 and amassed 3,401 runs from 66 matches, including 43 sixes. Compare that to his current year, and the difference is striking. His strike rate now sits at 117.94, the highest of his career, and he's already hit 17 sixes. But de Villiers believes fans are only seeing the trailer of just how dangerous Kohli can be. It's a side he's known about for a long time. "But that's the way I love Virat. And I've always, in interviews, said that there's a side of him that people don't know. And I think we're seeing that side more than ever now, where he's just completely focused almost on other people."

"And he realises that all he can do is just go out there and express his talents and let the fans and the people around the world enjoy that for one last time, or for the next two years or three or five years. I don't know how long," said de Villiers.

"But I love seeing this side of him. And I think it must be an incredible experience to share a dressing room with him as a youngster now. I think they are learning from him more than ever, being in this state of mind." De Villiers feels Kohli is no longer overthinking the game and is going with his instinct more than ever, which, in his opinion, makes him unstoppable.

"But yes, I think because he's so free, he's making sounder decisions out there. He's not so intense; he's not overthinking the game. He's going a lot on gut feel, it seems, and generally, the gut feel is right. Your instinct takes over, and he's played this game all his life." "So when Virat plays with his instinct, he's pretty much unstoppable. So, well, it's quite scary to think of where this will go and how good and how big of an impact he's going to have for Team India in the 2027 World Cup," de Villiers added.

Kohli currently finds himself in the top four for most runs in ODIs this year, with 552 from nine matches. It certainly seems like this new version is here to stay. And if de Villiers is right that there's more to come, Indian fans will be eagerly waiting to see him back in action, which happens next in New Zealand.