Vaughan backs Maxwell to emerge as Player of the Tournament, says 'RCB the strongest side'

With Glenn Maxwell leading RCB's fightback against Kolkata Knight Riders after a couple of initial blows, the Australian all-rounder has impressed former England skipper Michael Vaughan. Heaping praise on the power-hitter, the former English skipper has touted Glenn Maxwell to become the player of the tournament with his exploits in the first three games so far. Despite his appreciation, Vaughan also observed that Maxwell might be 'slightly under the radar' with the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in the same team. 

Maxwell snatches the Orange Cup

After a dismal show in the IPL 2020, Glenn Maxwell returned to form in the very first game of the season in RCB colours this year giving the franchise worth of their money. The Australian talisman has been roped in for a whopping amount of INR 14 crores to strengthen the team's middle-order. Since his arrival at the RCB, Maxwell has rescued the team from tough situations in all three games with a mix of elegant strokes and powerful hits. While registered his first half-century in the IPL since 2016 in the game against SRH, he went on to become the top scorer in IPL 2021 thereby snatching the Orange Cap from Nitish Rana. So far, Maxwell has 140 runs under his belt at a strike rate of 151 and is currently playing against KKR. 

Varun Chakravarthy's twin strike 

Winning the toss for the first time against Eoin Morgan, skipper Virat Kohli chose to bat first at the sluggish Chepauk stadium. The RCB captain walked out to open the innings with Devdutt Padikkal but could not sustain his stay at the crease for long. Kohli was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy courtesy of a brilliant catch by Rahul Tripathi. In the same over, Chakravarthy dismissed Rajat Patidar as well to jolt a second blow to the RCB. 

"We will bat first, the pitch will become slower and slower as the game goes on, but this surface looks better, want to put up a decent total on the board. We're playing three overseas players - Dan Christian misses out, Rajat Patidar is in. We just want to do a professional job, do the process right, take one game at a time and enjoy - keep calm under pressure," said Kohli after the toss.