Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma. Image Credits: Twitter

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain, Virat Kohli is all set to take on defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the season opener on April 9th in Chennai. Virat Kohli couldn’t think of a more “highly skilled” and “intense” game to kick-start the tournament.

However, the Rohit Sharma-led outfit has had an upper hand over RCB – Mumbai has won eight of their last 10 meetings with Bangalore, with one of the loss coming last season in the super over; Mumbai came back to even the scores of last year when Suryakumar Yadav struck a memorable knock (79* off 43) to gun down the chase. Hence, the RCB skipper asks his teammates to keep the “belief ” to overcome the Mumbai juggernaut which is aiming for a hat-trick – their 6th overall – IPL title.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (Image Credit: Twitter)

“We got to have belief in our team, coming up against Mumbai is always an exciting challenge, last time around we had two exciting games. We won one, they won the 2nd one, which was obviously close but obviously they came through because they have such a strong team.

“The first one was a cliffhanger as well, big scores, Super Over. So we expect a great great to start the IPL. I can’t think of a more exciting or a more highly skilled and intense game to start of this IPL,” Virat Kohli said in a video posted by RCB.

We have to focus on our skill and our strength: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli, who has confirmed that he will open the innings, reckons RCB has to focus on their game, and not too much on the opposition.

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The 32-year-old acknowledges that MI knows how to win big games and the tournament altogether, hence RCB, who are in search of their maiden title after 13 seasons, need not faze away from their plans and hopes for his side to play better than the opposition on Friday.

Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli (Image Credit: Twitter)

“I truly believe that we have to focus on our skill and our strength as a side. Mumbai obviously is a champion team and they know how to win this competition, we know the strength of their team. So, if we focus too much on that then we are not going to focus on what we can do.

“At the end of the day you are playing cricket, it’s a game which is played on the day, in the moment and in that moment you can be better than any guy in the world if you believe yourself to be,” the India captain.

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