New Delhi: The Royal Challengers Bangalore captain resumed training after a five-month coronavirus-forced hiatus. The net session was also attended by South African pace legend Dale Steyn and RCB team director Mike Hesson.
“(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,” Kohli was quoted as saying by the franchise’s website.
The 31-year-old, who was RCB’s highest run-getter in IPL last year, said staying fit during the lockdown helped him to react better during the net session even though he was training after a long break.
“I’ve trained quite a bit during the lockdown, so I’m feeling quite fit and that helps. Because the body is light and you react better, I feel like I have more time on the ball. That’s a big plus,” he said.
“Otherwise you come heavier into the season, the body isn’t moving as much, and it starts playing on mind, but yeah, as I said it went much better than I expected.”
RCB arrived in Dubai last week ahead of the 13th IPL which is scheduled to begin on September 19 in the UAE. The cash-rich T20 event was moved out of India due to the rising COVID-19 cases in the country.
The team hit the nets on Saturday after successfully ending their quarantine period. Besides Kohli, spin trio of Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem and a few pacers also trained and Kohli was pleased with the way they went about their business in the first session.
