IPL 2019: I would love bowling to AB de Villiers, says RR’s Krishnappa Gowtham

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 is just a day away and the excitement is in the air for the tournament opener between defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Chepauk in Chennai. The tournament will see the Indian team’s World Cup-bound players play against one another and this is something the fans love.

Rajasthan Royals will take on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on March 25. Rajasthan Royals have won the tournament in 2008, the league’s inaugural year and since then have been pretty successful. Royals’ along with Super Kings made a comeback into the IPL in 2018 after serving a ban of two years and reached the playoffs of the tournament.

IPL 2018 saw Rajasthan employ a variety of all-rounders including Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham coming good for them. Gowtham was especially a revelation, winning them matches from an impossible situation. He scored 126 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of 196.87 and picked 11 wickets, often bowling in powerplays.

K Gowtham speaks on his favorite batsman to bowl to

K Gowtham was bought by the Rajasthan Royals, captained by Ajinkya Rahane, in IPL 2018 auction for INR 6.20 crore. Previously, he was bought by Mumbai Indians for INR 2 crore in IPL 2017, but didn’t get to play a game and was released before the 2018 auction.

Gowtham came into limelight for his stupendous innings against Mumbai Indians in IPL 2018, where he scored 33* runs off 11 balls and snatched the win from jaws of defeat in a last over thriller. He was also valuable at opening the innings with the ball and bowled with a decent economy of 7.80.

Recently in an interview with Hindustan Times.com, Gowtham revealed the player he would like to bowl to in the upcoming IPL 2019 season. “Definitely I would love to have AB de Villiers’ wicket. He is known as 360-degree player. I am looking forward to bowl to him. He challenges me to see where I actually stand upto and I would love to bowl to him,” Gowtham was quoted as saying.

Here is CSK’s squad for IPL 2019

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