Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a six-wicket loss at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL 2020 Eliminator at Abu Dhabi on Friday (November 6).
WATCH – 'Eight Years is a long time', Gambhir wants RCB to remove Kohli as captain
With this defeat, RCB got knocked out of the tournament and their captain Virat Kohli has now moved into the bio-bubble created for the Indian players as they prepare for the upcoming Australia tour amid COVID-19 pandemic.
"Kohli moved into the Team India bubble late last night after the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He is likely to take a day or two off and start preparing for the series in Australia," sources in the know of developments in RCB told ANI.
The report also suggests that the likes of Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul and other squad members have already started preparing with Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari once their respective campaigns ended in the ongoing IPL.
The squad began preparations for the day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide from Friday evening with pink balls.
Coming to the IPL 2020 Eliminator, SRH dominated RCB in all facets of the game to book their place in Qualifier 2.
Asked to bat first, RCB posted only 131/7 in 20 overs. It was a listless performance as none of them besides AB de Villiers (56 off 43 balls) managed to touch the 35-run mark.
In reply, SRH overhauled the target in 19.4 overs. After losing the top three wickets early, Kane Williamson anchored the chase and remained unbeaten on 44-ball 50 while Holder played a valuable cameo of 20-ball 24* to see the team through.
Reflecting on the loss, Kohli said: "If you talk about the first innings I do not think we had enough runs on the board. We made one helluva game in the second half, the positions we got ourselves into in the second half.. It is a game of margins and if Kane (Williamson) was taken there then it is a different ball game.”
"Altogether they put us under a lot of pressure in the first innings. Few soft dismissals, few fortunate ones for them as well and we just did not have enough runs on the board. Maybe a bit of nerves, maybe a bit of hesitation, we need to be more expressive with the bat. We didn't have any phases in the game where we got away from the opposition. We just allowed bowlers to bowl to the areas they wanted to and did not put enough pressure on them."
