IPL 2020 | RCB spinners looked sharp in training, reveals Virat Kohli

After successfully completing their seven-day quarantine period, the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad members began training for IPL 2020 on Saturday. With a vast majority of their squad members not having played any cricket over the last five months, the players were put through rigorous drills and were also, on top of that, given ample time to both bat and bowl in the nets. 

Among the players who trained on Saturday were spinners Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed and according to club skipper Virat Kohli, the trio fared ‘pretty well’ on the first day of the camp. Kohli expressed satisfaction over the way his spinners bowled but admitted that the pacers had a pretty slow start to the camp.

“The spinners looked pretty good for day one, they pitched the ball in consistent areas for long enough,”  Kohli said in a video posted by the franchise’s official Twitter handle.

“Shahbaz was good, Washy was very good, I saw Chahal bowl well too. The seamers went through their motions a little bit. All in all, a decent start to our camp.”

Kohli himself, meanwhile, had not put bat to ball since India’s whitewash at the hands of New Zealand back in February/March and the RCB skipper admitted that he was ‘pretty scared’ prior to the hit-out on Saturday. The 31-year-old, however, revealed that the session went much better than he expected and added that his supreme fitness regime helped him glide through training with ease.

“[It went] much better than expected, to be honest. I was pretty scared. I hadn’t picked up a bat for five months, but yeah it came out better than I thought, to be honest. I’ve trained quite a bit during lockdown, so I’m feeling quite fit and that helps.

“Because the body is light and you react better, I feel like I have more time on the ball. That’s a big plus. Otherwise you come heavier into the season, the body isn’t moving as much, and it starts playing on mind, but yeah, as I said it went much better than I expected.”

Kohli’s RCB finished bottom of the table in IPL 2019 and would be looking to dish out a much better performance in the forthcoming edition of the tournament.