'Iske liye yehi trophy hai' - Fans troll Virat Kohli for reminding startling stat about Bangalore in Indian T20 League 

Virat Kohli (Image credit: Twitter)

Half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Faf-du Plessis powered Bangalore to get off to a winning start in the Indian T20 League 2023 as they thrashed Mumbai by eight wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday, April 02. Bangalore are one of the few teams that have not won the ITL title since the inception of the league, but the franchise has had a beautiful run in the past few years.

Having finished fourth in the points table last year after losing to Rajasthan in the eliminator, they look to be among the top contenders to lift the elusive trophy this time around, having signalled their intention in the very first match of the 2023 season.

The franchise has always had some of the biggest names in world cricket in their squad, but apart from providing entertainment to cricket fans, they have never been able to reach ITL glory. Under the leadership of Virat Kohli, Bangalore put up a good performance in 2016, when they reached the final of the tournament. The former Bangalore captain was an absolute beast that season - scoring 973 runs at an average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03.

While Bangalore is still in the hunt for their maiden ITL title, Kohli provided an eye-opening reminder of his team's success in India's men's franchise T20 league. The two most successful teams in the cash-rich league are Mumbai and Chennai with five and four titles, respectively. Pointing this out, the former Indian captain said that after being five-time champions and four-time champions, Bangalore is the third team to have qualified for the playoffs the most times.

"I wanted to mention this for a while - after MI who have 5 titles and CSK who have 4, if I'm not wrong, we are the third team to have qualified the most times to the playoffs - 8 times," Kohli said after his side's resounding win over Mumbai.

Bangalore kicks off ITL 2023 in style

As usual, Mumbai started their first match of the ITL season with a loss as their batters, barring Tilak Verma, failed to play responsibly. The Bangalore pacers bowled brilliantly in the powerplay, picking up three wickets, and the spinners tightened the screws in the middle overs to carry the momentum forward. However, the bowlers leaked runs in the last few overs as youngster Varma put in a brilliant performance in front of the Bangalore fans.

Chasing 172, Bangalore openers - Kohli and du Plessis - registered a 148 runs partnership to lay the foundation for their team. They lost a couple of wickets in the process, but Kohli remained unbeaten, scoring 82 off 49 balls and finished things off in style with a six to long on.