IPL 2021: Virat Kohli is desperate to do well – Mike Hesson

Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Mike Hesson has stated that the team’s captain Virat Kohli is desperate to do well. Kohli hasn’t been in the best of forms in the recent past and he will look to turn the tables in the remaining matches of RCB.

The talisman was dismissed after scoring only five runs in the team’s opening match of the second leg against Kolkata Knight Riders when he was plumbed in front of the wickets by Prasidh Krishna.

In fact, Kohli was looking in decent form in the fag end of the Test series against England but didn’t look at his absolute best. Furthermore, it has been more than 50 innings since Kohli has scored an international hundred.

The linchpin has also decided to step down as RCB captain after the ongoing season and wants to focus on his batting. Hesson revealed that Kohli had a good hit in the practice session and seemed to have gained his confidence.

Speaking about the RCB skipper’s prolonged net session, Hesson said: “We did that a couple of times [on Virat’s extended net session], some of our batsmen look to do that when they get extra opportunities.”

“Virat’s desperate to do well and he likes those one-on-one sessions to keep confidence or basically find his rhythm again and he says, it looks like he found it,” he added.

On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to bounce back stronger after receiving a thrashing from Kolkata Knight Riders in their opening match of the second phase. KKR had beaten RCB by nine wickets and the Virat Kohli-led team was bundled out for 92 runs. Kohli admitted that it was a wake-up call for the team and they will need to pull up their socks.

RCB have won five matches out of the eight they have played and they will look to come up with a collective effort in the remaining matches.

It will be crucial for RCB that Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers fire at all cylinders for the team. RCB will next face Chennai Super Kings at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on 24th September.