IPL 2020: RCB captain Virat Kohli says ‘don’t want to train like a maniac’
In a video posted by RCB, captain Virat Kohli speaks on how he and his teammates are training for the Twenty20 tournament. Watch the video here
FollowDubai: After two weeks of practice for IPL 2020, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli has opened up about how he and his teammates felt in those sessions in the UAE.
IPL 2020 will begin on September 19 in Abu Dhabi with defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) facing Chennai Super Kings (CSK). RCB’s first match is against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on September 21 in Dubai.
On their official Twitter handle, RCB posted a video on Saturday (September 12). In that, the players are seen training and also Kohli batting in the nets. In the same clip, the skipper spoke.
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“More intense, more hungry than ever before, and more balanced, Virat Kohli speaks about his progress after two weeks of practice in the UAE ahead of Dream 11 IPL 2020,” RCB wrote on their Twitter page along with the two-minute-plus video.
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Kohli started off, “First few days we are just getting our eye in, getting back in thick of things after five months, it's a bit different, you try and get into the frame of mind which you usually want to be in, when you are competing. It takes a bit of time, in these sessions now we are mostly batting in the middle, with hitting angles in the field, understanding the pace of wicket and all these. I am very very happy with how the team is shaping up.”
“Few shoulders were sore initially because we threw after months, suddenly you realise a few muscles were asleep. But I think the guys are now getting back into the intensity levels that we want. We don’t want to push anyone into a niggle or an injury. I understand it has been a while away from the game. So I think we moved ahead in a balanced manner,” he added.
The Indian captain said all the RCB players were in “good shape” and said they did not want to train like a “maniac”.
“We don’t want to be like a maniac like doing six sessions in six days. We gave ample off time to the boys which we will continue to do along the course of these next few training sessions also.
“From fitness point of view everyone is looking great, everyone is in good shape. It’s a matter of feeling good and I think I felt good from the first session onwards. Obviously, there are few things that you try and rectify along the way and once you reach your optimum mind set and you enter competition you just want to stay in that as much as possible,” he said.
RCB have never won the IPL trophy. They have a new head coach in Simon Katich this year and also a new director of cricket (Mike Hesson).
