Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) Director of Cricket Operations, Mike Hesson, has cheekily reacted to captain Virat Kohli's announcement of opening the innings for the RCB in the upcoming 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, starting April 9.
Last Saturday (March 20), Kohli surprised one and all by opening with Rohit Sharma for the first time in T20Is but the move worked for Team India as the two-star batsmen gave the hosts a dream start in the five-match series-decider against the No. 1 ranked England in Ahmedabad.
Kohli, who was the highest run-getter with 80 runs off just 52 deliveries at a strike rate of 153.85, and Rohit (64) added 94 runs for the first wicket to help India a massive total of 224 runs on the scoreboard, and eventually, they beat England by 36 runs to clinch the T20I series 3-2 last week.
Following the series win, the 32-year-old has announced that “I am going to open in the IPL as well” alongside Devdutt Padikkal for the RCB in the upcoming IPL 2021.
Following the announcement, the franchise took to Twitter to share a picture of Kohli with the caption "Guess who's back at the top of the order".
Have a look here:
Reacting to the post, Hesson said he hopes that the announcement will answer one of the “consistent” questions floating around the RCB in the upcoming T20 tournament.
Noteworthy, the 32-year-old has already opened for the RCB in the past, and even the opening batting brings out the best of the dashing right-hander, as he has amassed 2345 runs at an average of 47.86 and a strike rate of 140.17 from 61 innings in the IPL so far. He has 5878 runs to his name in 192 IPL games.
He has smashed all his five T20 centuries – all for RCB as an opener and even shattered numerous records by amassing 973 runs in 16 innings at an average of 81.08 in IPL 2016 and if he opens in the IPL 14, then it will surely keep the three-time runners-up in a good position in the tournament.
