IPL 2020 | Virat Kohli should open for RCB in absence of Finch, opines Ashish NehraÂ
Kohli has batted slowly this season
|@ IPL T20
Royal Challengers Bangalore might have made it to the final four but they have greatly struggled of late, which has made Ashish Nehra advice the team to open with Virat Kohli. The RCB skipper has struggled to bat rapidly this year and has batted at a strike-rate of 122.02 so far, which is poor.Â
Virat Kohli is a gun T20 batsman especially when he plays at the right position, which is certainly not no.3 when it comes to IPL cricket. If we take a look at his record, Kohli averages a whopping 48.73 with a strike-rate of 140.40 and has five centuries opening for RCB in the cash-rich league. In fact, in his landmark 2016 season, he was batting in the top two. Batting at 3, Virat has never got a century and his average falls down to 36.93 and strike-rate to 123.84.Â
After replacing a struggling Aaron Finch with young Josh Philippe, the latter hasn't quite done well with the bat and struggled in the last two games against DC and SRH respectively. That has prompted the former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra to quip that Virat Kohli should open the batting for RCB and he also defended Kohli's slow knock against DC, where he made 29 off 24 and batted slowly for the nth time this season.Â
“There was a lot of pressure on Virat Kohli, considering the conditions. It was not easy to hit Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, who does not go for wickets that much but does not allow you to score runs easily,” Nehra said on Star Sports.
“You need to appreciate the Delhi Capitals for not giving any chance to the RCB captain. But in the upcoming encounters if you don’t want to play Aaron Finch, then I feel Kohli should come as the opening batsman in this team,” he added.
RCB will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator on Friday in Dubai after SRH defeated MI and made it to the playoffs.
