TATA IPL 2022 LIVE: We “May See Virat Kohli of 2016 This Season”, Sunil Gavaskar Ahead Of PBKS VS RCB Match

TATA IPL 2022 LIVE: Sunil Gavaskar believes now that Virat Kohli is not the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain anymore, he may emulate his impressive performance from the 2016 IPL season.

Kohli scored a record-breaking 973 runs in the 2016 IPL campaign, including four centuries. Before that season, Kohli had never scored a hundred in the T20 format. However, since then, the former India captain has scored just one century in the IPL. For more IPL Cricket betting sites and IPL Match predictions, read here.

The talented batsman, who had never managed to lead RCB to the IPL title, quit his side’s captaincy ahead of the IPL 2022. South Africa’s Faf du Plessis has been named the new skipper of RCB.

Gavaskar has explained that when a player is “relieved of the burden of captaincy, he flourishes as he is not thinking about 10 other players.”

Following the excellent campaign in 2016, Kohli has scored 500 or more runs just once in the last five seasons. He finished with 530 runs in 14 matches at an average of 48.18 during the IPL 2018.

Kohli took over RCB’s captaincy from New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori after the 2012 season. Under Kohli’s charge, RCB made it to the final only once – in 2016. However, RCB lost the game to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) despite playing at their home ground of Chinnaswamy Stadium.

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IPL 2022 LIVE: Maxwell’s cricket depends on his approach, says Gavaskar

Meanwhile, Gavaskar also spoke about Kohli’s RCB teammate Glenn Maxwell. RCB signed Maxwell from Punjab Kings (PBKS) ahead of IPL 2021. After failing to reach even 150 runs in each of his final two seasons at PBKS, Maxwell announced his arrival at RCB in style.

“Maxwell’s cricket depends on how he approaches every innings. There are times when his approach has been unbelievably fantastic and then there are times it has not been that great. Last season, he was in a team with Virat Kohli and ABD, two of the finest batsmen that the game has seen and so maybe he lifted his game. He raised the level of his game to try to keep up with that,” added Gavaskar.

The Australian all-rounder finished with 513 runs in 15 matches, including six half-centuries. Maxwell, who did not hit a single six during the 2020 season for PBKS, hammered 21 big hits for RCB in his maiden season with them.

RCB are set to begin their IPL 2022 campaign later today (March 27) against PBKS at DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai. Find here more IPL betting apps for IOS and Android and learn more about how betting works online.