Virat Kohli To Face Mitchell Starc In IPL 2024: Australian batting great and former captain Steve Smith backs his fellow countryman Mitchell Starc in his upcoming battle against Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will take on Kolkata Knight Riders and Mitchell Starc in Match 10 of IPL 2024 in what is one of the most looked-forward-to contests between bat and ball in the league.
While Kohli has been with RCB since the start of IPL in 2008, Starc was bought by KKR for a whopping Rs. 24.75 Crore in the auction last December, making him the most expensive player in IPL history by a mile.
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Despite not having played IPL in about 8 years now, Mitchell Starc is one of the greatest bowlers of this generation. The left-arm quick has the ability to drop in yorkers on a coin and move the ball at speeds exceeding 150 km/h.
Fans have been salivating at the idea of this battle of the ages. One of the people who has been looking forward to it is Steve Smith.
Virat Kohli To Face Mitchell Starc In IPL 2024
While Smith is excited to see Starc take on Kohli, in a recent interview with ESPNCricinfo, he backed the pacer to emerge victorious in this battle citing Virat’s history of struggle against left-arm quicks.
“I quite like [Starc’s] match-up to Virat, the ability to swing the ball back down the line as a lefty. We have seen him [Kohli] get out on a few occasions to Shaheen Afridi, Trent Boult, and Mohammad Amir. In the first game against Punjab Kings, Kohli had an opportunity off Sam Curran dropped at slip. So I quite like the left-handed match-up,” said Smith.
The former Rajasthan Royals and Pune Super Giants captain then went on to say that a star batsman like Virat Kohli will be aware of the tactics that Mitchell Starc will be looking to employ against him. He continued –
“Starcy’s going to swing the ball back down the line early on, I’d imagine, and then use the wobble seam to go across him [Kohli], and potentially try and nick him off. It’s going to be a good game, and I’m aware Virat would know how Starc’s trying to attack him as well – whether he tries to potentially come down the track [to] just take the swing out of play [we’ll see]. It’s going to be interesting to see how he counters it.”
Starc, who last played in the IPL in 2015 when he donned the RCB colours, will now take on his former franchise when KKR takes on the Royal Challengers tonight in Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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