With change in leadership at RCB, we might actually see the Kohli from IPL 2016: Gavaskar

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Mumbai, March 26: Star India cricketer Virat Kohli will begin a new chapter in the Indian Premier League when takes the field as a non-captain for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in his team's opening game against Punjab Kings at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy on Sunday (March 27) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.

As RCB begin their campaign under the leadership of Faf du Plessis, the spotlight will be on Kohli who relinquished captaincy after last year's IPL. The legendary India cricketer will be stepping into the middle as a player for RCB for the first time since 2012.

Former India captain and legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar has claimed that relinquishing the captaincy could be a blessing in disguise to Kohli for that will the talismanic batsman to flourish as he won't have to think about the other 10 players in the side.

Speaking during a Star Sports show Gameplan, Gavaskar said, "At the moment, we do not know whether Kohli will be captain again. Sometimes when a player is relieved of the burden of captaincy, he flourishes as he is not thinking about 10 other players. When you are captain, you are thinking about 10 other players and sometimes also the other members of your squad, about their form or lack of form and things that they are not doing right which when they do it right, will be good for the team. This season, we might actually see the Kohli of 2016 where he got almost 1000 runs in the IPL season."

Speaking about Australian star batsman Glenn Maxwell during the Gameplan episode Gavaskar said, "Maxwell's cricket depends on how he approaches every inning. There are times when his approach has been unbelievably fantastic and then there are times it has not been that great. Last season, he was in a team with Virat Kohli and ABD, two of the finest batsmen that the game has seen and so maybe he lifted his game. He raised the level of his game to try to keep up with that. If he says to himself I am going to do what ABD has done for RCB, then RCB could be in for a real magic season from Maxwell."