Kohli reveals reason behind RCB dropping Gayle, Sarfaraz Khan

Tough times called for tough measures, and lying at the bottom of the IPL points table, Royal Challengers dropped arguably the greatest T20 batsman Chris Gayle for their crucial match against Pune yesterday.

Speaking about the change, Virat said, “He wasn't rested. We chose Travis Head in place of him because we felt that we needed more solidity in the middle”.

Big-hitting middle-order batsman Travis Head replaced the Jamaican in the line-up. However, he finally had not much to do as Kohli carried the chase through single-handedly on his shoulders with a record ton, that incidentally equaled Chris Gayle's record for maximum tons in an IPL season. “Travis strikes the ball really well and KL (Rahul) and me are opening well for the team, and Travis can bowl off-spin as well in the middle if need be. Also, Travis was brought in as Pune boasted of three left-handed batsmen,” he added.

Kohli also talked about the rationale behind the exclusion of Sarfaraz Khan, who has shone with the bat earlier in the season. The chubby 18-year old had become the crowd favorite after a scintillating 35 off 10 balls against Sunrisers earlier, but has since lost his form to score only 31 runs in the other matches so far.

"Sarfaraz understands the areas in which he needs to work on as far as the fitness and fielding part is concerned. You can't afford to have too many guys in the field who are not up to the mark with their fielding because the outfield here is lightning quick.

"I think Sachin (Baby) is in that aspect is very committed and he is fit and he works on those things. Me as captain, I want to have a guy who gives 120 per cent on the field and saves some crucial five to six runs,” Virat said.