Pacer Yash Dayal recently shared his first interaction with Virat Kohli in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) camp during this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) as well. He also said that Kohli gave him a lot of confidence, assuring him that the franchise would back him throughout the season as well. He again mentioned that Kohli’s words helped him bounce back after a poor IPL 2023 season with Gujarat Titans (GT).

During an interview with News 24, he said: “He is portrayed as an overly aggressive individual on social media but he is nothing like that. When I tried talking to him, he himself came and explained a lot of things. Everyone knows about the kind of season I had with Gujarat Titans. My health deteriorated after that. I had a lot of doubts in my mind, but when I started this season, I didn’t miss a single training session.”

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“Virat eased the pressure before the first match by telling me that RCB were going to back me throughout the season, irrespective of how I performed.”He said that whatever happened has happened, just focus on the future. He told me that whenever I perform for RCB, there should be a smile on my face and I would have to be enthusiastic on the field. I understood what his personality was like. At first, I could not understand his words, I just kept looking at him,” he again shared.

However, he was the leading wicket-taker for RCB in IPL 2024, scalping 15 wickets from 14 outings at an economy rate of 9.14. He successfully defended 17 runs off the final over in RCB’s must-win match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), taking his side into the playoffs as well. Yash Dayal also named a bowler whom he idolizes. He said that right from his childhood, he has considered former India speedster Zaheer Khan as his idol.

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“Zaheer Khan is my only idol. I haven’t met him yet. When I started watching cricket in my childhood, I saw Zaheer Khan bowling a lot and troubling the batters.”When I got a sense of cricket, I understood that he was one bowler whom I could follow. He has been my idol right from the start. If you ask 90’s kids which bowler’s action have they tried to copy, everyone would say it was Zaheer Khan,” Yash Dayal concluded.