Virender Sehwag said that RCB cannot depend only on Virat Kohli and Du Plessis to score runs. He said that Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell will have to step up and perform.
So far in IPL 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have experienced two extremes. He played almost flawlessly to secure an impressive 8-wicket win against Mumbai Indians to start their campaign. Virat Kohli (82* off 49) and Faf Du Plessis (73 off 43*) made a mockery of the 173-run target after leg-spinner Karn provided the ball. On Thursday, RCB suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and dropped their second game by a margin of 81 runs.
As KKR were at 89/5, they were clearly ahead of the game when Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh left the pitch. After losing their top five players within 100 runs, they hit a counter-attacking 103 in just 7.4 overs to take KKR to 204/7, the highest by a team in IPL.
When KKR skipper Nitish Rana bowled the ball to spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, they all lost their cool. In reply, Kohli and du Plessis got off to a good start against fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee. Chakraborty beats du Plessis and Narine badly beats Kohli.
After the dismissal of Kohli and Du Plessis, Narine, Chakraborty and Suyash Sharma surrounded RCB. Michael Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell came and went and the RCB batting collapsed like a house of cards. KKR spinners took nine wickets for RCB’s 123 runs.
Virat Kohli cannot depend on Du Plessis
Former India opener Virender Sehwag said that RCB cannot depend only on Kohli and Du Plessis to score runs. He warned that Karthik and Maxwell will have to lead from the front.
“You can’t rely on just two players. Looks like RCB will be successful only if Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis perform well. it’s not possible. Glenn Maxwell needs to pitch in. Dinesh Karthik should participate. Everyone else has to pitch in.” Anuj Raoj, who came in as an impact player, also needs to do well. RCB need to see if there is a better option available,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz
He said that Rajat Patidar’s injury has affected RCB badly. Rajat Patidar was one such player who scored a lot of runs for RCB last season and also scored a century. He made a big mark, so it seems RCB were very shaken by his injury,” he continued.
Sehwag, however, said it was fortunate that RCB would have a chance to recover from such a batting collapse at the start of the contest.
“Every team in this tournament will experience a game like RCB. Everyone experiences a bad batting performance, that’s IPL history.” Some will have this downfall at the beginning of the tournament, and some at the end. It is good that this happened with RCB in the second itself. Had this happened after 8-9 matches in the league, there would have been a big difference in the points table due to poor net run rate. Then you will be left with no option but to win all your remaining matches to qualify. But now he has a chance to make a comeback.
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