He has dismissed Kohli just once.
The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) player Cheteshwar Pujara has stated that he is looking forward to the match-up between star batter Virat Kohli and the former RCB spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. He acknowledged that Kohli has improved his game against leg-spinners in comparison to recent years.
“I’m looking forward to the battle between Virat and Chahal. Because Virat has struggled a bit but has improved a lot against leg-spinners. If you look at his stats, in last four-three years, his stats were not great. But now his stats have improved immensely. So that is the battle I’m looking forward to,” he said during ESPN Cricinfo’s Time-Out.
The 37-year-old applauded Chahal for his bowling techniques. He hailed the spinner as a “clever bowler” who is brave enough to bowl slower. He also praised the current Punjab Kings (PBKS) player for his changes of line and variations according to the match situations.
“I’m really happy with the way he is bowling. Because not many bowlers are bowling slowly in the IPL, looking to flight the ball, trying to deceive the batsman. He has that courage, he knows what a batter is trying to do and he is a clever bowler. He changes his line, changes his variations really well and he has that heart. Because as a spinner you need to have heart to bowl slowly and to bowl quicker as well,” stated Pujara.
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Notably, the spinner spent a long eight-year IPL stint with Kohli as part of the RCB franchise. He scalped 139 wickets for RCB to become the team’s all-time leading wicket-taker in IPL history.
However, he was released ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction. Rajasthan Royals (RR) acquired Chahal for INR 6.5 crore. Interestingly, he has bagged Kohli’s wicket only once in the IPL so far. The 34-year-old dismissed him in the eliminator between RCB and RR in IPL 2024. In that match, RR knocked RCB out of the tournament by claiming a four-wicket victory.
Both teams have registered four wins in their six matches so far, but their positions on the points table are separated by net run rate. Bengaluru holds a slight edge over fourth-placed Punjab with an NRR of +0.672.
RCB have won all four of their away matches so far. However, they’ve lost both home games against the Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals. If they can’t break their home losing streak soon, it could hurt their playoff chances. Rajat Patidar and Co. will face Shreyas Iyer’s PBKS at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium tonight.
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