Watch: Virat Kohli gave the Bengaluru home crowd another reason to love him, turning into a Faf du Plessis imitator and matching him stroke for stroke during a practice session ahead of the Royal Challengers Bangalore-Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2023 match.
Du Plessis and Kohli are currently the top two names on the Orange Cap list. Kohli is right behind Faf, as he was during practice at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, copying everything from his stance to his shots, much to the crowd’s delight. The two timed their movements to the last second, with Kohli perfectly matching Faf’s high backlift. In all honesty, barring the backlift, the rest of the stroke had more Kohli than Faf in the impersonation, but the mimicry was good enough to invite cheers from the half-filled stadium, with everyone yet to get in.
Faf was doing some actual knocking, while Kohli happily shadow-batted behind – out came the drives in perfect sync – almost a throwback to when Glenn Maxwell stood behind Sachin Tendulkar during an IPL nets session back in 2013, matching him stroke for stroke. Kohli and Faf exchanged glances in the middle and smiled: naturally, the crowd cheered along.
Kohli has been captaining in place of regular skipper Faf, whose injury has turned him into a batting-only impact player. In the game, Kohli top-scored for RCB with a 37-ball 54 in a 201-run chase, but it wasn’t enough to take the home side through. KKR won by 21 runs.
Watch Kohli impersonate Faf here:
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