Virat Kohli has faced a challenging time while facing the spinners. And now he is all set to face CSK spinners as well. However, his 29-ball 47 in RCB’s win over CSK in a must-win game was important as the pitch suddenly and briefly offered sharp turn after a rain break as well. Kohli ended IPL 2024 as the tournament’s leading run-getter also. And, according to RCB’s batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik, he is well equipped to handle it.
“He has batted well in the recent past against spin, especially in white-ball cricket,” Karthik said on Thursday (March 27), the eve of the game. “So, I don’t want to go too deep into stats. I am not very aware. But if I remember, in the [T20] World Cup finals, he got runs where it mattered. And apart from that, in the Champions Trophy, he had a good tournament, second-highest run-getter [for India]. And that doesn’t come without playing on spin.”
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“So, I believe right now, he is batting as well as he has ever done. And you speak to him even today, just now as I came out… he wanted to work on one more shot. At this point of time, to work on one more shot, tells you the hunger that he has in his mindset. He wants to just improve and keep raising the bar. So, he is a special player. And at this point of time, the way I see it, he is batting as confidently and as well as he has ever done in IPL,” he added.
On a less spin-friendly surface in Kolkata, Virat Kohli started this season well, scoring 24 off the 20 balls he faced against spin. He also attempted the sweep once every five balls against KKR as well. Meanwhile, CSK look to have got their desired type of home pitches as well.
“If it does turn, great,” Stephen Fleming said, before saying that they were happy to play on any kind of surface. “It’s difficult. We don’t have much influence, really, on what comes up. Each pitch has a different characteristic. We’ve found that. So we’ll work really hard from ball one to try and work out what we have, trying to get us a team that’s pretty well-equipped for all conditions because that’s been the key to playing here,” Fleming said.
“We do find it’s a flat wicket. We’ve got guys that are good at bowling in those conditions. If it does turn, great. I’m sure we won’t get a green seamer, so the other two are what we’re looking for,” he concluded.
