NEWS
Follow UsWith Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) kick-starting their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 campaign against defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in Chennai today (April 9), Virat Kohli reckons that his batting at the top will give the side a little more balance. After the T20 International (T20I) series against England, the RCB skipper had said that he would continue to open for his franchise after he scored an unbeaten 80 opening the innings in the final game of the series.
"I had spoken to Mike (Hesson) and Simon (Katich) last year that I would like to open in IPL 2021 and I would go into that headspace, luckily things happened in a way that I got to open in the last game against England and I ended up getting a good score which gave me the confidence to step into this role so I can probably do it again," Kohli said in a video posted by RCB on their Twitter handle
"That experience was very important heading into this IPL, knowing I am sorted with my game at the top of the order, and then now let's create that balance in the team. My batting and those things are taken care of," he added.
Incidentally, Kohli has had the most success in the IPL as an opener. In the 61 matches, he has opened for RCB in the IPL, he has scored 2,345 runs at 47.86 and at a strike-rate of 140.2 - which is the best when compared to any other position he has played in. Also, all five of his IPL centuries have come when he has opened the batting.
Kohli was not in the best of forms going into the T20I series. He had a couple of low scores in the Tests and in the T20I too he failed to open his account. He then revealed a chat with his RCB teammate AB de Villiers helped as he would go on to score six 50-plus scores in six limited-overs fixtures.
Talking about the same, Kohli said, "It's amazing when you have played for so long, you can go into a zone where you feel like you cannot even score a run. There is such a lack of clarity in your mind and there are too much thoughts going around. It is all external factors you are thinking of and that is creating more confusion."
"So I thought I will take another point of view because I have seen ABD play, every innings he has got the same intensity and passion. He is never addicted to getting scores and he is always thinking about the team situation. I asked him when in doubt, what do you do? The simplest of the advice one can get and he said just watch the ball."
Speaking of his long association with RCB, Kohli said, "We have reached the final thrice, we have reached the finals of the Champions League which used to happen once. We played four finals, we played two or three semifinals as well. Just the fact that we have not finished the job in the IPL, we are one of the most loved teams across the tournaments. Me as an individual I never felt like move away from this system just because I haven't won the title and that happens because things have been so organic."