There will be less pressure on Gayle, AB and me this season says RCB skipper Virat Kohli

There will be less pressure on Gayle, AB and me this season says RCB skipper Virat Kohli: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli says that their top order which includes big players like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and him will be able to express themselves better in this season with less pressure on them because of the arrival of players like Darren Sammy, Dinesh Karthik and S Badrinath in the team. He also feels that it has provided depth to their batting line-up.

Kohli said, “I think this season is pretty different for us because for the past three or maybe four years, myself, Chris and AB have played under a lot of pressure because the batting revolved around the three of us, “If you look at a few of the other teams they had a lot of depth in batting so guys could go in and play freely. But we had to be cautious and at the same time look to score runs.

“But this time we have got Dinesh Karthik, Darren Sammy. We have got youngsters like Mandeep Singh, and Badrinath as well. It is a very strong batting unit this time and we have got really good depth and some really good power hitters.

“I think myself, Chris and AB can play the way we always wanted to play in T20. Like you see AB playing the way he did in the World Cup, I am sure he will be feeling relieved that he can go out there and start playing like that from ball one. That is pretty exciting for us as a team.”

While RCB has been the runners-up twice in the past but, the last three seasons have been forgetful for the Bangalore team, as they even failed to reach the knock-outs on all three occasions. Kohli said they have a strong enough team to clinch the Indian Premier League trophy in 2015.

“We always aim to do well in the tournament. We have played the finals twice, played the Champions League finals once and it is time that we cross that hurdle and we have a team which can cross the hurdle.

I am sure that the players we have retained and bought in the auction, we can create a good combination which gives us a good chance in the tournament. If 11 players believe that we can win then we will surely do well in the tournament,” he said.