Follow UsThe Indian fans can heave a sigh of relief as Sanjay Bangar has confirmed that Virat Kohli suffered a bit of a niggle, but it was not anything serious after the star-batter went off the field in the final overs of Gujarat's run chase.
The 34-year-old jarred his knee while taking Vijay Shankar's catch at deep mid-wicket to give the Royal Challengers Bangalore their second wicket of the evening.
In the post-match press conference, the Head Coach of the side asserted there is nothing to worry about as far as Kohli's fitness is concerned ahead of the World Test Championship final.
"He had a bit of a niggle in his knee. But I don't think there is anything serious," he said.
"Having scored two back-to-back hundreds within a gap of four days is a special achievement. He is somebody who not only wants to contribute with the bat, but even when he is fielding, he does a lot of running around."
"Forty overs a couple of days ago, and for 35 overs, he was on the field, he was giving his best. So it is going to bother at some point, but I don't think it’s anything serious," he further added.
The right-handed batter slammed a sublime 101 off 61 deliveries to power Bangalore to 197 runs in the first innings. However, they were at least 15-20 runs short on a wicket conducive for strokeplay, and Bangar admitted the young Indian batters failed to grab their opportunities.
“Some of the players who have been part of our scouting system have actually gone on and done really well. You see Rajat Patidar, who was again a part of our talent scouting system. The local guy, Vyshak was very impressive throughout the season."
"You have to be patient with young players. That is one thing that most teams agree on. You have to invest time in them. Mahipal had his share of innings, but he should have been a little more consistent."
"It’s a work in progress. I agree that they didn’t really have the kind of season that some other younger players may have had with other franchises. We will go back to the drawing board and see what kind of continuity we want to give to the players," he added.
The former batting coach of the Indian side also shared his views on the performance of the Royal Challengers in this edition and stated that barring the game against the Knight Riders, the team was very consistent despite losing by six wickets against the Titans.
"I thought we were pretty consistent throughout the season, and if you take out the second game against KKR, where we were outplayed. I thought we played well but could not finish some key moments of the game, which is probably why we are a couple of points short.
"Having finished on 14 points and narrowly missing out on a playoffs position, we are doing certain things right to maintain that consistency, but we need to find answers to why we are unable to take the final couple of steps that are needed to cherish our long-standing dream," he concluded.