Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has stated that winning the IPL or even reaching the playoffs will be more important for Virat Kohli than getting more runs for himself. Kohli has captained the RCB side for three seasons now, but still couldn’t lay hands of the silverware.
In 177 matches for the Bengaluru-based franchise, Virat Kohli has scored 5,412 runs, including five centuries, and is the highest run-getter in the IPL.
RCB have reached the final thrice, under three different captains, but they couldn’t lay hands on coveted IPL title. With a new coaching team, they would look to break the jinx — and get their hands on the silverware. The Royal Challengers Bangalore squad had started their training two weeks back, after completing the mandatory quarantine.
RCB have a balanced team to challenge for the title: Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir feels Kohli has a well-balanced team in his hands this season as compared to the previous season where they were more dependent on their batting. He also mentioned the signing of Aaron Finch will have a huge impact on RCB.
“It looks like Virat Kohli has a balanced team this time. Earlier they used to have a lot of dependency on their batting, their bowling was not considered as a strength for them. But their team management have tried to make a balanced team this time, to have more depth in their bowling and they have kept some all-rounders as well.The addition of Aaron Finch in the RCB squad could also have a huge impact,” Gambhir told on the Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.
Gautam Gambhir tells the biggest challenge for Virat Kohli in IPL 2020
Former KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir feels Virat Kohli absolutely needs to win the IPL title and that is the biggest challenge ahead of him. He said although Kohli has been getting all the runs for his team the ultimate goal is to win the trophy.
“The biggest challenge for Virat Kohli the batsman is that they need to win the tournament necessarily. Rohit Sharma has won this tournament four times and MS Dhoni has won it three times. And you are captaining for the last 8 to 9 years. You might be scoring huge runs on your own, which he will score this time as well, but ultimately you want to win the trophy as a captain and as a player,” said Gambhir.
“If you ask any captain if he would like to score 700 runs or win the tournament after scoring 500 runs, he will go for the latter. And when someone opens the batting, whether it is Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma or I, when I was playing, we have more opportunities to score runs as compared to someone who plays in the middle order.
“So, the opener will definitely score 500-700 runs but if you will ask the RCB captain, then the biggest challenge in front of Virat Kohli is that he scores runs but more important than that is to win the tournament or reach the playoffs or the finals,” he added.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will play their first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on the 21st of September. The IPL 2020 will begin from September 19 till November 10, a total 53-day campaign will see all the eight teams play in UAE. The venue this time is UAE and matches will be played in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.