Yet again Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) regular skipper Faf Du Plessis didn't turn up for the toss and sent Virat Kohli for the proceeding in the Indian Premier League (IPL) clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday (April 26). Kohli is again leading RCB's pack as Du Plessis will only enter the field to bat.
However, RCB's stand-skipper Kohli gave a big update on Du Plessis' injury update and revealed when he is likely to be back for team's next game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 1. Du Plessis picked up a rib injury in the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) few days back. Faf played a gritty knock against CSK in which he batted through and through in pain. However, RCB lost the game despite Faf's heroics.
"Faf will play the impact role again tonight. We are playing the same team as the last game. Hopefully, he will lead from the next game onwards but yeah tonight he will play the same role that he played in the last 2 games," Kohli said at the toss ahead of the game.
Kohli was also asked about returning as RCB skipper in IPL 2023 to which he said that it was unexpected, but he had been enjoying it.
"It was unexpected but nothing now I'm used to. The planning has been great, and the guys are playing great cricket so it wasn't difficult for me to step in and just handle things a little bit. I did a few things instinctively as well on the field which comes naturally, but it's been good as the team has done well so far," Kohli told the broadcaster.
Talking about the match, Kohli, who is leading RCB from last three matches, won the toss and opted to bowl first.
"Looks like a great pitch. The usual Chinnaswamy pitch we expect. So as I said. Chasing a total, you are never out of the game. One partnership can get you through so that's exactly what we are looking at and hopefully, we will start strong with the ball," Kohli said after winning the toss.
"Second half of the tournament has started, it's an important game. We've played some good cricket, some not so good. It's time to step up. If we play well collectively, the result will be in our favour. In previous games, we've had unforced changes. Shardul had a niggle, Gurbaz had a niggle. We were going to bat. One change from the last match - Vaibhav Arora comes in for Kulwant,” KKR captain Nitish Rana said after the toss.
Meanwhile, KKR rode on stellar knocks from Jason Roy (56 off 29) and Nitish Rana (48 off 21) and posted a huge total of 200/5.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): N Jagadeesan(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj.
MORE ON SPORTS TAK:
KS Bharat or KL Rahul? Sunil Gavaskar has his verdict on India's playing XI for WTC final
‘There was no other solution other than…’: Harbhajan Singh's big remark on Rahane's selection for WTC final
'I think he could be the guy who takes over from Rishabh Pant': Kevin Pietersen names injured wicketkeeper's replacement in Team India
