This T20 World Cup will be special for Virat Kohli. Deciding to step down as India captain for the shortest version of the game after the mega event, Kohli will be keen to bag his first ICC title as a leader and end on a high.
He can warm up to this goal in right earnest by first claiming his maiden IPL trophy in his last chance as a skipper after announcing his decision to relinquish the RCB captaincy at the end of this season. Kohli is already on that path with his side Royal Challengers Bangalore starting the second phase of the competition in the top half of the points table.
They stand a good chance to pick up the momentum they left behind four months back by making a winning start against Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
RCB's biggest takeaway from the first phase of the tournament was that the team had flourished despite their star skipper not firing consistently. With Glenn Maxwell taking the lead against spinners in the middle overs and AB de Villiers giving the finishing touches to the innings at the death, no total looked safe against them. If Maxwell and AB continue to share the burden like this, Kohli will get an opportunity to play much more freely.
However, it is their spin department that might keep the team think tank a bit worried. Yuzvendra Chahal was far from his best in the first leg in India. Despite playing on spin-friendly surfaces, the leg-spinner struggled and could only pick four wickets in seven matches. They will be without Washington Sundar this time and perhaps need to adjust the team combination a bit to fit in Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga who had done well in the last couple of years in the T20 circuit.
KKR, on the other hand, had plenty to ponder. None of their batsmen are among the top ten run-getters while only Pat Cummins, at seventh, finds a place among top 10 bowlers. The side will definitely miss the Australian pacer, who played some valuable knocks with the bat too in the first phase.
While their top order of Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi were almost always slow off the block, striking well below 120 in the Powerplay, their bowlers have struggled to pick up early wickets managing just three in seven innings of the Powerplay. They have picked the fewest wickets among all teams in 2019, second fewest in 2020 and are currently the joint-lowest in 2021. Sunil Narine seemed to have lost his mystery element, while Kuldeep Yadav has failed to get even a match so far. All eyes will be on how Varun Chakravarthy will stand up and deliver to strengthen his claim in the India side for the T20 World Cup.
In that way we might witness a little battle within the battle among Chakravarthy, Chahal and also Yadav, who might again find it difficult to make it to the playing XI. It has been a phenomenal rise for the architect-turned-professional cricketer Chakravarthy who first tried his hand in spin bowling only in 2018.
In some strange coincidence, the fortunes of India's favourite spinning duo of recent time - Chahal and Yadav - took a nosedive somewhat during the same time when Chakravarthy came up after the 2019 World Cup. This IPL, thus, can be a platform to showcase where they all belong.
