Kohli was not "settling in" to accelerate at the end. He's made that mistake a number of times in the past, but not usually in the last 3-4 months. He didn't accelerate because he knew it wasn't his bowling style to attack.
T20 is not about getting from point A to point D using
Kohli's accelerating at the end isn't him compensating for dotting up earlier. He is not in the XI to attack the away spin duo of Nawaz and Shadab. He is in the XI to provide class, power, and range vs pace (one of the primary requirements to win in Australia) -
and he was doing his job right from the very beginning. It was the rest of the team's responsibility to complement him, either with the lineup or on the field, which they failed to do. Batting works by balancing each other out. There is currently no complete T20 batter in the
world who can take on everything, so expecting one player to do so is unrealistic.
Thoughts on the teams? This was played between some of the smartest people I know (sadly, I couldn't be part of it).
Lucknow - I love the batting, the opening duo in particular. The bowling unit ticks a lot of boxes too, could have gone a notch higher with a even a part time offie to complement Bishnoi-Brar.
Again the batting unit is impressive with Gujarat; the bowling ticks a lot of boxes too, could have been elevated further with offspin to complement their spin duo.
5th bowler need to be hidden. For Lucknow, otoh, death bowling was a problem.