'I was pretty scared, hadn’t picked up a bat for five months' - Virat Kohli after his first net session

With the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League just a few days, all the franchises except Chennai Super Kings have started their field camp in UAE after serving a mandatory six-day quarantine period and testing negative in various rounds of coronavirus tests conducted. The much-awaited edition of the World’s biggest T20 league in all set to kick-start from September 19, with the final to take place on November 10 across three venues namely Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.

Indian cricket team and IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli had his first net session on Friday at the ICC Cricket Academy in Dubai after being on sabbatical for almost six months due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Though Kohli was apprehensive about picking a bat after a long period of time, he did fine in the Day 1 of RCB’s camp. In the end, the skipper was pleased with the way his body reacted to the game.

Virat Kohli shares the experience of training in Dubai

The official social media handle of Royal Challengers Bangalore shared a small clip that showcased a glimpse of the team’s training on Day 1. In the video, Virat can be seen speaking about his experience of bracing the match field and also about the practice of the bowlers.

“[It went] much better than expected, to be honest. I was pretty scared. I hadn’t picked up a bat for five months, but yeah it came out better than I thought, to be honest. I’ve trained quite a bit during the lockdown, so I’m feeling quite fit and that helps,” Kohli said in the video.

“Because the body is light and you react better, I feel like I have more time on the ball. That’s a big plus. Otherwise, you come heavier into the season, the body isn’t moving as much, and it starts playing on the mind, but yeah, as I said it went much better than I expected,” he added.

Further in the video, the Delhi Stalwart also shed light on the training of the bowling unit of the team. In their journey of 12 years in the Indian Premier League, RCB hasn’t won even a single time. Though the team has had one of the lethal batting combinations in its squad, it’s bowling in the death has been its Achilles’ heel.

“The spinners looked pretty good on day one, Shahbaz Nadeem, Washington Sundar were landing the ball in the right areas, Chahal bowled well too, the seamers went through the motions little bit today, all in well decent start to our camp,” Virat concluded.