Former India spinner Pragyan Ojha called Virat Kohli a very smart and dangerous batsman and revealed what makes the RCB skipper stand out from others, especially while playing in Chennai’s Chepauk stadium.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) already made a winning start to their IPL 2021 campaign by beating the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in the tournament opener on April 9 at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. It is a hard ground to score boundaries due to the slow nature of the pitch and Ojha feels that’s where Kohli’s smartness comes into play.
Jasprit Bumrah dismisses Virat Kohli [Image-IPLT20]Pragyan Ojha, speaking to Sports Today, said Virat Kohli’s ability to not just depend on boundary-scoring shots and convert ones into twos and twos into threes makes him well-positioned to accumulate runs on sluggish wickets at Chepauk.
“Virat Kohli is a very smart batsman. He will not look for those big sixes and boundaries, he will try and get similar number of runs but with those hard runs and not with big shots. So you need to keep this mind even you’re playing in bigger venues,” Pragyan Ojha said.
Pragyan Ojha (Image Credit: Twitter)
Virat Kohli began his IPL 2021 campaign with a 29-ball 33 while opening the innings as RCB beat MI by 2 wickets chasing 160 to win the match.
What Makes Virat Kohli So Dangerous On A Ground Like Chepauk? Pragyan Ojha Explains
In the opening match, batsmen from both teams struggled to make runs on a sluggish wicket and it was only because of AB de Villiers’ innings of 48 that RCB managed to win the match.
“When you are playing in Chepauk, if you see the dimension, the side boundaries are bigger. When you’re playing in smaller grounds like Mumbai and Bengaluru, even the mistimed shots go into the stands. But when you mistime it in venues like Chennai, there’s every chance it will fall in some fielder’s hands. On bigger grounds, you need to look for those twos, singles. It’s a slow wicket, and it’s not easy to hit those four and sixes, and you need to find alternate ways to score runs,” Ojha added.
Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell (Image Credit: Twitter)
“And in this format and in these conditions, Virat Kohli, with the game plan, he has looking for those doubles and singles, converting those ones into twos and twos into threes. If SRH are planning against Virat Kohli, then they should look to cut down on those extra runs,” Ojha signed off.
RCB face off against SRH in their second match of IPL 2021 on April 14, 2021.
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