LSG vs RCB IPL 2022 Eliminator: Virat Kohli genuinely cares about younger cricketers, says Mike Hesson

Virat Kohli will look to go one better than IPL 2021 after striking form in the last league match by scoring 73 in a comprehensive RCB win.

Virat Kohli (left) with RCB captain Faf du Plessis during a training session ahead of IPL 2022 Eliminator against LSG. (Source: Twitter)

Royal Challengers Bangalore will taken on KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2022 Eliminator clash at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday (May 25). A win on Wednesday will help either of the two sides in booking a place in Qualifier 2, where they will take on Rajasthan Royals for a chance to reach the IPL 2022 final on May 29.

Former captain Virat Kohli is on familiar turf as he guided RCB to the IPL 2021 Playoffs as well but failed to progress beyond the Eliminator, where they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders. Kohli will look to go one better after striking form in the last league match by scoring 73 in a comprehensive RCB win.

RCB Director of Cricket Mike Hesson has revealed that Kohli has played a big role in building a great team culture although Faf du Plessis is the captain of the side.

“Faf’s been great, once we decided who was going to be captain and he was made aware of that, it was certainly not all about him putting a stamp on it, but coming in and contributing to the culture, and the word culture is often overused and often it's based around performance. So, people go, ‘oh they’ve won, so they must have a great culture, for me, the culture happens first, it’s something that is quite hard to define, it’s more about how you react under pressure, how you react to your team-mates and Faf is big on that. He is big on creating a legacy as well in terms of we have actually got to set things in place for the next 3 years and hopefully beyond,” Hesson was quoted as saying on RCB’s Bold Diaries.

“Virat is obviously a key part of that, being our ex-Captain, and such an influential character, but he also brought a whole lot of senior players for the ride that he can engage with. All the young guys love him because he cares, actually genuinely talks and sit to have breakfast with them, gets to know them, sits them by the pool, whatever it is to actually build that group and he does that organically, it’s not fake, it’s quite a natural way with how he deals with people,” Hesson said about Kohli.

Pumped up and ready to take on LSG in the #IPL2022 playoffs, RCB had two intense practice sessions in the lead up to the game. Hear about our preparations form our players and coaches on @kreditbee presents Game Day.#PlayBold #Mission2022 #RCB #nmmRCB #PlayOffs #LSGvRCB pic.twitter.com/8UW60sDnW3 — Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) May 25, 2022

Hesson has attributed ‘some real consistency’ and keeping ‘calm under pressure’ as the reasons for the franchise’s three consecutive playoff appearances, adding that a lot of work goes behind the scenes in ensuring that.

Talking about the uniformity in the team’s performance in the last three seasons, Hesson said, “I think it is about some real consistency, about how we go about at work. So, you try and limit those ups and downs that happen in any IPL. It’s all about being calm under pressure; what`s your response under the pump. Do you panic, do you make a whole lot of changes or do you believe what you are trying to do?

“A lot of work goes behind the scenes in terms of making sure we are already clear of how we are going to play our cricket and also about who are the people that can fulfil those roles. They will have their ups and downs and we can live with that. Because we know that they can work overtime and overcome those lows,” added Hesson.

(with IANS inputs)