With Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday, Indian skipper Virat Kohli has moved into the bubble created for the Indian players as they prepare for the upcoming series against Australia amid COVID-19 outbreak. Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments in RCB said that the Indian captain moved into the bubble created for the players picked for the Australia series after the game against SRH.
“Kohli moved into the Team India bubble late last night after the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He is likely to take a day or two off and start preparing for the series in Australia,” the source said.
The likes of Mayank Agarwal and all have already started preparing with Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari once their respective campaigns ended in the ongoing IPL and as reported by ANI, the squad started preparations for the day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide from Friday evening with pink balls.
Coming back to Friday night’s action at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, SRH beat RCB by six wickets to set up a clash with Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2 that will be played on Sunday. The winner takes on Mumbai Indians (MI) in the final on Tuesday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Commenting on the game, Kohli said: “If you talk about the first innings I do not think we had enough runs on the board. We made one helluva game in the second half, the positions we got ourselves into in the second half.. It is a game of margins and if Kane (Williamson) was taken there then it is a different ball game.
“Altogether they put us under a lot of pressure in the first innings. Few soft dismissals, few fortunate ones for them as well and we just did not have enough runs on the board. Maybe a bit of nerves, maybe a bit of hesitation, we need to be more expressive with the bat. We didn’t have any phases in the game where we got away from the opposition. We just allowed bowlers to bowl to the areas they wanted to and did not put enough pressure on them.”
But Kohli did praise the boys for putting up an overall strong show even as the last few games did not go as per Kohli’s wish. “Couple of people have stood and had a good season, Devdutt (Padikkal) is one of them and Siraj has had a good comeback. Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal) has been solid as ever, AB has been solid as ever.
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“Couple of positives for RCB and Devdutt is one of them, he stepped up nicely and getting 400+ runs is not easy. He has played with a lot of class and efficiency for the team. Very happy for him. The others contributed but just not enough. That also tells you the strength of the teams in the IPL, no team is run away favourites as such and every team has strong players, one of the other reasons is playing in only three venues and there’s no home and away advantage.
“Similar conditions for everyone and that’s the reason this has been one of the competitive IPL this year. It was amazing to have had this opportunity to come out and play. There’s a bigger picture going around here and we are all contributing to that. To all our fans who have supported us like every year, we just want to thank them.”