In a fresh change, former captain Virat Kohli arrived as the stand-in captain of the Bengaluru side as the Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Punjab Kings in an IPL 2023 match on Thursday. While Kohli was deputizing for injured Faf du Plessis, Sam Curran wore the captain’s hat in place of Shikhar Dhawan.
Virat Kohli Returned As RCB Captain
Two years after stepping down as RCB’s captain, fans were left stunned when Kohli turned up to lead RCB at the toss. Kohli leading RCB in place of Faf du Plessis became the talking point even before the game started.
The move came possibly from the fact that Faf had injury concerns in his ribs during the last game and batted on even after getting the area taped up in that game. After Sam won the toss and opted to bowl first, Kohli was asked the reason behind him donning the captain’s hat. Kohli explained that Du Plessis is carrying a rib injury because of which he wouldn’t be able to field as well. Hence, the team decided to play him as an ‘impact player’. He said:
“Faf potentially can’t be fielding today, so he’ll be playing as an impact player, switching with Vyshak. We got to do what we wanted, we would have batted first, the pitch could get slow, some scruff marks will help the bowlers going deep into the game. Taking one game at a time, focussing on our own game, make the most of crunch situations, we haven’t done that so far in the tournament. No other changes for us,”
Meanwhile, fans on social media couldn’t keep calm after seeing Virat Kohli return back as the captain. From memes to amazing messages, fans came up with amazing reactions.
Check out the best memes:
2021 : Virat Kohli left the captaincy
2023 : Virat Kohli is captaining againKohli is proving time and again that he is the most dogla man ever. pic.twitter.com/pPyBg4jzoE
— Jyran (@Jyran45) April 20, 2023
2021 : Virat Kohli left the captaincy
2023 : Virat Kohli is captaining againKohli is proving time and again that he is the most dogla man ever. pic.twitter.com/pPyBg4jzoE
— Jyran (@Jyran45) April 20, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking…, Captain VIRAT KOHLI 👑🔥❤️ pic.twitter.com/fwoPF3jZeg
— Dennis❤️ (@DenissForReal) April 20, 2023
https://twitter.com/KudosKohli/status/1648984803646271488?s=20
Love to see that (C) after Virat Kohli. 🥹🤍#RCBvsPBKS pic.twitter.com/eBWpzZ0Rum
— Akshat (@AkshatOM10) April 20, 2023
https://twitter.com/KohliFanVerse/status/1648992145972539393?s=20
Virat Kohli becomes the first captain to complete 6500 runs in T20 as a captain.
One of the Greats ever – King. pic.twitter.com/QRVZzhDwhN
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 20, 2023
Fifty for Virat Kohli, his 41st fifty plus score in IPL as a captain.
Captain leading from the front🐐❤️
Time to accelerate! pic.twitter.com/VwsWioohhl— Pari (@BluntIndianGal) April 20, 2023
Virat Kohli becomes the first captain to complete 6500 runs in T20 as a captain.
One of the Greats ever, King Kohli 🐐 pic.twitter.com/FuzRJccJGA
— × (@Sobuujj) April 20, 2023
Playing XI And Impact Player List Of Both The Teams
Punjab Kings XI: Atharva Taide, Harpreet Bhatia, Matthew Short, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran (c), Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
PBKS’ subs: Prabhsimran Singh, Sikandar Raza, Mohit Rathee, Rishi Dhawan, Shivam Singh
Royal Challengers Bangalore XI: Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli (c), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wayne Parnell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj
RCB’s subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat
🚨 Toss Update 🚨@PunjabKingsIPL win the toss and elect to field first against @RCBTweets.@CurranSM & @imVkohli are leading their respective sides today.
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/CQekZNsh7b#TATAIPL | #PBKSvRCB pic.twitter.com/ITFDTd7ObP
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 20, 2023