[Watch] Virat Kohli interacts with Muttiah Muralitharan ahead of RCB-SRH IPL 2024 clash
RCB superstar Virat Kohli had a brief interaction with SRH spin-bowling coach Muttiah Muralitharan on the eve of the battle between the sides at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 15.
The two teams have been involved in several fiercely contested contests, including the 2016 IPL final, where SRH came out on top to win their first and only title. This season has been one to forget for RCB thus far, with the side losing five of their six games to find themselves at the bottom of the points table.
Their lone bright spot has been the scintillating form of Kohli, the current Orange Cap holder with 319 runs at an average of almost 80 in six games.
Ahead of the virtual must-win encounter for RCB, Kohli was seen interacting with Muralitharan.
Here is a video of the same:
Kohli was at the start of his international career during Muralitharan's sunset, meaning the duo faced each other only sparingly.
The champion Indian batter has played the Sri Lankan wizard only in ODIs and hasn't been dismissed in 15 balls. However, the story is quite the opposite in the IPL, with Muralitharan dismissing Kohli twice in 39 deliveries, with the batter scoring 50 runs.
Meanwhile, SRH has turned things around from a disastrous last-place finish in the 2023 season, winning three out of their five games thus far in IPL 2024.
"Everyone would love to be like Virat Kohli" - Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan lavished praise on Virat Kohli ahead of IPL 2024 by saying it was every cricketer's dream to be like the former RCB skipper.
The 35-year-old is the IPL's all-time leading run-scorer with 7,582 runs, including eight centuries, in 243 games.
In a video shared by Star Sports during the build-up to IPL 2024, Muralitharan said:
"If you want to be a cricketer, everyone would love to be like Virat Kohli. He believes in himself and he puts in a lot of hard work. He is one player who puts in lots of hard work and he's determined to perform well. So he has a lot of good qualities as a cricketer. He's passionate about it."
Despite Kohli's individual brilliance, RCB has not won an IPL title. The franchise has qualified for the final three times but has suffered defeats to their South Indian rivals, Hyderabad (2009 and 2016) and Chennai (2011), on all three occasions.