133 runs in seven matches might not be flattering, but Stoinis has given RCB something that they've always lacked - batting depth. © BCCI

When Virat Kohli talks, you better listen. When he praises, you better save the screenshot. And when he calls you the opposition's 'biggest threat', you better get ready for some teammate banter and a permanent question in every single media briefing all your life. Marcus Stoinis clearly is learning this the hard way.

He knew this was coming, almost embarrassingly smiling through the question of dealing with yet-another-Aussie-nickname, BT, as he spoke to the media on the sidelines of a practice session on Tuesday (April 23) ahead of the must-win clash against KXIP. "Yeah, I think the likes of Nathan Lyon and Patty (Cummins) didn't like that I was the biggest threat. I think they got a bit jealous," he smugs in humour.

But scratch a layer and there may still be embarrassment; scratch another, there may be sly smirk at his teammates, but keep scratching them out and you'll be left with raw pride. Plenty of it. It's not everyday that arguably the world's best batsman picks you out for such praise.

"We obviously expect a stiff competition overall from the Australian team but if I had to single out one player that can make more impact that would be Marcus Stoinis," Kohli had told the reporters ahead of the T20I series against Australia earlier in the year. "He's come around really well during the BBL and he's making standout performances on a consistent basis. You can see he's grown in confidence and he's definitely going to be a very important player for them."

This is Stoinis' fifth year at the IPL. He's been swapped out of Kings XI Punjab, his home for three years, for a local player. RCB may have been the bigger franchise clearly getting the better deal on paper, but their troubles of nailing a winning combination ran much deeper. Stoinis was one big chunk in the hope of getting it right; the glue, the lever.

It was almost as if Bangalore were waiting for him to arrive from the UAE, refusing to win until he did. It isn't that they are any better in the points table right now, but he's formed that middle-order core with Moeen Ali, which has given them what they've always lacked - balance. 133 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of just over 137 might not be flattering - and he knows that - but he's given them something else that they've always lacked - depth.

More importantly, he's let Kohli and AB de Villiers breathe again. "As we started winning games and as people have started stepping up, the two big guys - AB and Virat - don't have to do it all by themselves. That'll give them some confidence as well," he said. He's done this role all his career in ODIs for Australia - hang around for the big boys in the top-order to dictate terms, and adapt. After all, his job description is to add balance.

Now RCB might be out of contention by then giving him closure, but there are only a couple of games left for him in this season before he flies home for the World Cup preparatory camp. Though Stoinis admits, "I don't think there is any better preparation than playing the IPL, in front of these crowds, with all the pressure and all the external factors that go on."

But, Australia build to defend their title, the bets for which have oscillated from not-a-chance to big-favourites in less than a month. That one month saw Australia lose at home to India, then lose two more to India away, before miraculously striking back to not just win the series but also carry the juggernaut to the middle-east where they whitewashed Pakistan to make it eight wins on the trot. "From the outside it might look like all of a sudden, like a big shift, but I think it also shows the game of cricket is only about small minor details. I think even in the time we were losing, we learnt a lot, starting getting closer in a lot of games," he insists.

"There were a lot of close games we were losing but then on the flip side a lot of them were close games as well. Even the first two matches we lost (to India), we had a good chance of winning them. It just shows how strong the competition of cricket is all over the world, any team can win on any day. But the belief we have in each other has come a long way to help us. Eight wins, to have them all away from home I think is very important for us. We needed it as well."

With Steven Smith and David Warner returning from their bans, which he calls "a major boost", BT's big threat with the bat might be restricted to some late slogging, but he doesn't see it as being much of a change. "I don't think my role will change too much. I am assuming I will be batting in the middle order, whether that's 5 or 6, I am not sure. And then with the ball, doing my stuff . We are very fortunate to have Glenn Maxwell bowling pretty well at the moment as well. I see probably myself and him sharing the overs as a fifth bowling option"

History tells us, whether it be 1983 or 1999, how important these bits and pieces seam-bowling all-rounders are to World Cups in the UK's early summer. It is in the end what the three-dimensional fuss is all about. With big bats, small boundaries, flat tracks and fielding restrictions posing the big threats to this once rampant profession of dibbly-dobblers, it could ultimately fall upon the shoulders of 'Australia's Biggest Threat' to revive the dying art. He owes it to the community.

You'd argue Kohli's praise was tactical, IPL-driven, but with the World Cup knocking around, inflating the big man's ego seems a pretty bad gamble to have to pay for barely half a season's services. Surely Kohli knew that, yes he does wear spectacles, but surely he ain't that short-sighted. He sure meant it.