Virat Kohli Wants Joy Back for RCB

Bangalore have lost three IPL finals

Virat Kohli signs autographs India

Captain Virat Kohli has insisted the Royal Challengers Bangalore deserve to win and Indian Premier League title.

The Royal Challengers have reached three IPL finals, but haven't won one. They were runners-up in 2009, 2011 and 2016.

Their squads, since the first in 2008, have been lined with overseas stars such as West Indian batsman Chris Gayle, South African duo Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers. Gayle has since joined the Kings XI Punjab, but de Villiers and Steyn are still with Bangalore.

“When you have, in history of the league, the biggest players in the world, obviously there's going to be a lot of attention on the team. Now, you see even with this team – myself, AB, Gayle previously, Steyn has played recently, we're always going to be more in focus. We've spoken about it,” Kohli said during a conversation on Instagram with former England captain and IPL batsman Kevin Pietersen.

“We've reached three finals, but we haven't won a single one of them. We've made three semi-finals, but those things are irrelevant until the time you don't win the title. We feel the same as everyone else. Even when we've had the best teams, we've just not been able to do it. That's one of our main goals. We deserve to win the title.

“There's been added pressure in recent years. We've just thought ‘this is the season, this is the season', and that's blown us all over the place. I think we need to get that joy back.”

The start of this year's edition of the IPL has been moved from 29 March to 15 April as a preventative measure against the spread of the coronavirus. It might be subjected to more delays.

IPL history

The Mumbai Indians are the reigning champions, having beaten the Chennai Super Kings in last year's final. Mumbai are captained by batsman Rohit Sharma – and have won the title four times.

The Super Kings have won three titles. The Kolkata Knight Riders have won two. The Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural tournament in 2008. The tournament has also included the Gujarat Lions, Rising Pune Supergiants and Deccan Chargers, which have since disbanded.

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