The 27th match of the IPL 2023 sees Punjab Kings (PBKS) hosting Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali, Punjab on April 20, 2023. And as a surprise for many of the RCB fans, Virat Kohli came out for the toss as captain of the RCB side.
Two years after stepping down as RCB's captain, a pleasant sight unfolded when Kohli turned up to lead RCB at the toss. On the other hand, Punjab Kings were captained by Sam Curran as Shikhar Dhawan is still recovering from a shoulder injury.
Sam Curran won the toss and chose that PBKS will bowl first on their home ground. While talking after the toss, Virat Kohli revealed why Faf du Plessis wasn’t captaining the side despite being playing this match.
“Faf potentially can't be fielding today, so he'll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, and some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focusing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven't done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us,” Kohli said.
The move possibly stems from the fact that Du Plessis had injury concerns in the last game and perhaps hasn't regained full fitness. Du Plessis opened the innings with Virat Kohli but is not expected to field when PBKS bats.
Meanwhile, the RCB fans were hit by a dash of nostalgia as they saw Virat Kohli coming out to bat and sharing their emotions on the social media platform Twitter.
Here are some of the tweets:
