Former South African captain AB de Villiers is confident that his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate Virat Kohli will light up the upcoming IPL 2024, starting on March 22 in Chennai.
Kohli is set to return to action after taking a break from cricket for nearly two months to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their son Akaay, as he chose to skip the recent Test series against England.
However, De Villiers is confident in Kohli's abilities, and he is eager to watch the best of his friend in the upcoming IPL 2024 for the RCB, who will kickstart their season against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the tournament opener at Chepauk Stadium on Friday.
The ex-RCB batter praised Kohli's impressive IPL career. The former Indian skipper is the leading run scorer in the IPL with 7,263 runs in 200 matches, highlighting his exceptional talent and consistency.
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AB de Villiers said on his YouTube channel: “Stalwart, King Kohli, over 7000 runs, over 200 IPL matches -- but that's simply incredible. That's like a career in itself. Virat will be back. We've missed him dearly and absolutely cannot wait to watch the best of him this coming season.”
Speaking about RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, ABD said: “He has had a little bit of a dip in form of late, but towards the back end of the SA20, he started finding his feet again, which boasts well for RCB this season.”
The current RCB bowling line-up boasts of the likes of Lockie Ferguson, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj, Alzarri Joseph and Karn Sharma. They also have Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal, Mayank Dagar and Himanshu Sharma in their ranks.
Praising RCB's bowling depth, De Villiers said: “The bowling department, led by Mohammed Siraj, plays a huge role in that bowling department.”
He signed off by saying, “I think there's very nice depth this time around, and I think that's one of the big reasons I feel RCB is going to go all the way this year.”
(With PTI Inputs)
