Why is Rajat Patidar batting ahead of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell? Virat Kohli answer
Kohli was asked whether one of Maxwell or de Villiers could have walked out to bat at the fall of first wicket, with the RCB captain explaining the reason behind sending Patidar ahead of the two destructive batsmen.
Despite facing two defeats, Royal Challengers Bangalore have been a success this season, and one of the primary reasons behind that is the balance the team has been able to strike, especially in the batting department. With Virat Kohli opening with Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers to follow at No. 4 and 5 respectively, RCB have depth in their batting that has seen them through most of the time in IPL 2021.
However, the batting order did not click during their IPL 2021 match against Punjab Kings. Chasing 180 to win, RCB lost Devdutt Padikkal early and with PBKS bowlers with their tail up, RCB stuck with Rajat Patidar to bat at No. 3. Patidar struggled scoring 31 off 30 balls as RCB failed to capture momentum. This led to commentators wondering whether in tricky chases, reserving players of the quality of de Villiers and Maxwell at 4 and 5 is the right call.
After RCB lost to PBKS by 34 runs, Kohli was asked whether one of Maxwell or de Villiers could have walked out to bat at the fall of first wicket, with the RCB captain explaining the reason behind sending Patidar ahead of the two destructive batsmen.
"We understand the areas where we lost momentum. The composition of our team is such that someone like Rajat, if you see the last game, controlled the game for us. We give him that freedom and sometimes it doesn't work out," Kohli said after the match on Friday.
De Villiers and Maxwell have been in tremendous form for RCB this season and even though they are likely to continue batting at No. 4 and 5, Kohli did not rule out the possibility of either batsmen getting promoted according to game situation.
"Maxi and AB at 4 and 5 has worked well for us, when there's a partnership early, one of them will come higher. Didn't work today but Rajat's a quality player. A bit of a positive at the end, pulled things back nicely. Harshal and Jamo (Kyle Jamieson) struck a few at the end. A loss of 60-65 would've hurt more," the RCB skipper said.