The Indian stalwart, Virat Kohli is leading Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their match against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday, 20th April. Kohli had given up the captaincy of the franchise ahead of the 2022 season, with Faf du Plessis being bought in the auction to lead the team. However, ahead of the PBKS game, the Indian star returned as the captain of the side.
The star batter has been in top form with the bat in the ongoing IPL edition, as he has already scored three fifties this season. The toss was won by PBKS on Thursday and Sam Curran decided to field first. Kohli received a huge ovation on his return to captaincy and revealed the reason behind taking up the role once again.
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As quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Virat Kohli revealed that Du Plessis would be playing as an Impact Player as he couldn’t take the field due to his rib injury suffered during the match against CSK. The star batter said RCB weren’t disappointed despite losing the toss as they wanted to bat first in the clash.
Explaining the same, Virat Kohli said, “Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as a impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t gone that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us.”
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The playing lineups for both teams are as follows:
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj.
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Atharva Taide, Matthew Short, Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
