IPL 2018: Virat Kohli hails Gary Kirsten's mentoring skills as the best for RCB

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have been among the very few teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) who are yet to win the championship ever since the inception of the tournament. The franchise played a couple of Finals against the Deccan Chargers and the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2009 and 2015 respectively, however, slumped to defeats in both the games.

Nevertheless, this time around, they have Gary Kirsten, the former South African cricketer, as their batting coach, who has been a successful mentor thus far in his career. He has won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 with India and has also been a coach of the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL and the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League (BBL).

Virat Kohli’s accolades for Gary Kirsten

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli sounded delighted on his appointment and mentioned it as a blessing for the youngsters in the franchise.“I was personally in favour of getting Gary on board. This discussion came up sometime before the auction. I thought it’s a great opportunity for the younger guys to spend time with Gary,” Virat was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Also, he highlighted Kirsten’s attributes as a batting coach and brought forth his performance with the Indian team. “I had a great working relationship with Gary. In terms of the batting group operating, I think he’s the ideal man to supervise things. He can keep the batting group together which I saw him do at the international level with the Indian team” he added

Virat Kohli made his international debut against Sri Lanka back in 2008 and since then has grown in stature. The cricketer praised Kirsten for helping him develop as his career has progressed. “I benefited massively from his inputs in the early stages of my career and that certainly made me a better cricketer in those tough times,” the Indian skipper remarked.

Here is the RCB squad

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