Mumbai: Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen has said Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli now feels comfortable about his bowling arsenal and that is showing in the results in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
RCB has won all their four matches and the side is at the top of the IPL table with eight points.
“It is the bowling department that they have struggled with. Dale Steyn, like I said earlier, Mitchell Starc, was someone who was almost there, almost came. They’ve got through that many bowlers. It looks like they’ve been comfortable with Kyle Jamieson and Mohammed Siraj. Yuzvendra Chahal is not the kind of guy that has to come on in the third and fourth over and then drag it back and get all the wickets,” said Pietersen on Star Sports’ pre-show Cricket Live.
“As good as he is, that’s a hell of a lot of pressure for somebody to do every single season. So, I just think that bowling department is something that Virat now feels comfortable about. And when you’ve got guys like Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Daniel Sams all still waiting to play, he knows that he’s got back-up,” he added.
Pietersen also feels the batting department of RCB is fine now as Glenn Maxwell has shown great form to support Kohli and AB de Villiers in the middle-order.
“I think I’m going to talk about this point again, just purely on the basis that I think it makes such a big difference to RCB, the bowling department. Virat Kohli has been desperately searching for combinations in his bowlers — to try and make sure that they start the innings with the impact, like they’re able to do with the bat. Kohli, De Villiers, they’ve now got Glenn Maxwell, Devdutt Padikkal, they’ve got all that. So, the batting department is absolutely fine,” said Pietersen.
RCB will next lock horns against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.