Indian skipper Virat Kohli who found it very difficult to get going in the recently concluded Test series against England will now be back in action in the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) starting from September 19.
According to former India batsman Gautam Gambhir, after a struggle against England, it will be a huge challenge for Kohli to quickly get into the T20 mindset as he has been playing Test cricket since reaching the UK.
“See there’s going to be a challenge for Virat and there’s going to be a huge challenge for AB de Villiers as well because he will be coming into the tournament without playing any cricket at all.
Virat Kohli will have to adjust really quickly because there’ll be hardly any time for him to get used to it. From the five-Test-match series to the T20 format, and AB as well, because these guys need to get runs if they have to have a chance to first qualify for the playoffs and then probably go on to win the title,” said Gambhir on Star Sports' show ‘Game Plan’.
Virat Kohli said that he was excited to play in the IPL and lead RCB once again and mentioned that he was in touch with the entire squad. He is currently undergoing six days of quarantine and return multiple negative RT-PCR tests.
“I've been in touch with everyone. We've had discussions over the last month or so, a little longer than that with the replacements, who's coming and who's not. Eventually, we ended up replacing our key players with some top-quality cricketers,” the RCB skipper said.
“Our key players will be missed, and they are a part of the family, but the people coming in as well have great skill sets, especially for these conditions. So, I'm very excited to see them, with the whole group at practice, and certainly very excited to resume a very good season that started last time around,” Kohli signed off.
As far as the Bangalore-based franchise is concerned, they have 5 wins under their belt in 7 matches and are currently at the third spot on the points table. RCB will be resuming its campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders on September 20.
(With Times Now News Inputs)
