KKR vs RCB Highlights, IPL 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders thump Royal Challengers Bangalore by 9 wickets

Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik (w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna

Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli wins toss, opts to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi.

"It is very very hot, around 40 degrees. Lovely lush green grass at the outfield. There is a little bit of grass, it's even - so, it will have a tennis ball bounce, little bit of movement and will assist the pacers for a while. The average score batting first is 165. There is a lot of wind coming from one side of the ground" - Nick Knight and Matthew Hayden

News of Virat Kohli deciding to step down as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain after the end of the 2021 season has come as a surprise for many cricket fans. The announcement was made before RCB's first match of IPL phase 2, which will be played on Monday vs the Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB are yet to win an IPL title, but as things stand right now, they are going strong in IPL 2021. The team is in third place on the points table currently with 10 points after 7 matches, behind CSK and DC.

This T20 World Cup will be special for Virat Kohli. Deciding to step down as India captain for the shortest version of the game after the mega event, Kohli will be keen to bag his first ICC title as a leader and end on a high. He can warm up to this goal in right earnest by first claiming his maiden IPL trophy in his last chance as a skipper after announcing his decision to relinquish the RCB captaincy at the end of this season. Kohli is already on that path with his side Royal Challengers Bangalore starting the second phase of the competition in the top half of the points table. They stand a good chance to pick up the momentum they left behind four months back by making a winning start against Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

RCB are currently placed in a comfortable position and would be hoping for Kohli to play freely and score big runs, especially after taking the big call of relinquishing T20 captaincy. With Glenn Maxwell (223 runs from 7 games) and AB de Villiers (207 runs from 7) leading the run scorers chart till now for the team, RCB's batting unit looks ominous. Kohli (198), by his own standards, has been a little disappointing and Devdutt Padikkal (195) too would be looking for a consistent show.

Even though KKR leads in head-to-head record against RCB, winning 14 and losing 13 out of 27 fixtures played between the two sides, the 38-run defeat against Kohli's team in the first half of the event in Chennai would be fresh on their players' minds.

While Virat Kohli's RCB is third in the eight-team standings with 10 points from seven games, 2012 and 2014 champions KKR are languishing at the seventh spot with just two wins out of seven ties. And Eoin Morgan-led KKR would be hoping to make a turnaround, just like 2014 edition when they won nine games in a row to claim the title.

Enduring a forgettable outing in the first half of this year's IPL, two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look for reversal of fortunes when they resume their campaign against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second phase of T20 league tonight.