Ashish Nehra reckons Virat Kohli should open for Bangalore if Aaron Finch is benched

With Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch struggling to score big in the IPL, former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra believes that Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli should open the innings with the bat along with Devdutt Padikkal. While Padikkal has made an instant impact in the IPL 2020, the Australian talisman has rather found it difficult to get going. Consequently, Finch has been benched while Australian young gun Jos Philippe has been brought in his place to kickstart the proceedings for Bangalore with the bat. 

Highlighting the loss against Delhi, Nehra said on Star Sports, "You need to appreciate the Delhi for not giving any chance to the Bangalore captain. But in the upcoming encounters if you don’t want to play Aaron Finch, then I feel Kohli should come as the opening batsman in this team."

“There was a lot of pressure on Virat Kohli, considering the conditions. It was not easy to hit Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, who does not go for wickets that much but does not allow you to score runs easily,” the former speedster added. 

'It's a mixed bag': Virat Kohli

Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli termed the team's performance as a 'mixed bag' after their loss at the hands of Delhi in the Dream11 IPL 2020 league match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Monday. 

"It's a mixed bag. As I said at the toss, you come to games to try and get the result your way. Through the 11th over, the 17.3 mark was informed by the management. I think we controlled the middle phase really well and they could've taken the game away from us. We are happy that we've qualified. Top two would've been really very nice. But I think we've played good enough cricket to earn a qualification spot," Kohli said after the match.

After a loss against Delhi, Bangalore will now face either Hyderabad or Kolkata in the Eliminator on Friday. While Bangalore had started the tournament as a dominating force, Kohli and his men have diverted from winning way in the recent games. The squad has been heavily reliant on AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli to fire whereas the bowling department has failed to address the death overs crisis, despite some added firepower. Mohammed Siraj has found his rhythm in the last couple of games but the injury of Navdeep Saini has hurt the squad severely. 

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