The former India cricketer Virender Sehwag made the prediction during an interaction on Star Sports, the official broadcaster of IPL 2023.
It’s not even a week since the ongoing edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) got underway, and fans have already been entertained with some superlative knocks. The season started with Ruturaj Gaikwad blazing his way to 90 off just 50 balls in the season opener between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. Shubman Gill, who plays for Gujarat, also made his presence felt in the same contest as he smashed 36-ball 63 to power his side to a five-wicket win.
Apart from him West Indies all-rounder Kyle Mayers, who opens for Lucknow Super Giants, too has been in supreme form. Mayers knocked 73 off 38 balls against Delhi Capitals and in the clash against Chennai on Monday, the explosive batter scored 53 off 22 balls.
Ruturaj Gaikwad too maintained his impressive run and scored 57 off 31 balls and is currently the leading run-scorer after accumulating 149 runs from two innings.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis have carried forward their scintillating form and blew Mumbai Indians away in their first match. The pair added 148 runs in 14.5 overs, with Du Plessis scoring 73 off 43, while Kohli smashed an unbeaten 82 of 49 balls, helping RCB complete the stiff 172-run chase in 16.2 overs.
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Mumbai middle-order batter Tilak Varma also played a superb innings in the contest. Varma scored an unbeaten 84 off 46 balls to bail his side out of danger after they were reduced to 48/4 in 8.5 overs.
Despite the intense competition and the league being in the initial stage, former India cricketer has made a bold prediction as far as the Orange Cap is concerned.
On being asked who’s would be the three contenders for the Orange Cap this year, Virender Sehwag in an interaction with Star Sports said: “Ruturaj Gaikwad number one, KL Rahul number two and the third can be between Kohli and Rohit Sharma.”
All the five players mentioned above are placed in Top 5 in the race for Orange Cap, Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma had a slow start to the tournament. He could only manage 1 off 10 balls against RCB before being caught-behind against Akash Deep.