Virat Kohli is better than AB de Villiers, says Mandeep Singh
Virat Kohli is better than AB de Villiers, says Mandeep Singh
Mandeep Singh has expressed his wish to play in the next ODI or T20 series © IANS[/caption] India batsman Mandeep Singh is on the good side of luck nowadays. First of all, the 25-year old player has recently joined the "married club" of the Indian cricket. The lady luck seems to have worked in his favour as he has been retained to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). His most recent stint has been dynamic knock of 86 runs which guided his side Punjab to a 6-wicket victory against Vidharba in the Vijay Hazare trophy. With players such as KL Rahul and Kedar Jadhav making a mark for themselves in the national team, there might be competition in RCB house but Mandeep feels it is for the betterment of the team. “Last year I had to miss few matches due to injuries and KL Rahul took his opportunities, Sachin Baby also did well. So, I couldn’t get back into the playing XI and Sarfaraz (Khan) had to sit out as well,” he said. In spite of the critics stating their doubts on the 12-crore signing of RCB's most expensive player Tymal Mills, Mandeep is all praises of the selection and reveals that there were a lot of talks about him after the T20I against England. “Since Mitchell Starc is not there, Tymal Mills will be the most important bowler for us. He was brilliant in the T20 series. We discussed a lot about him before the series and still, it was tough to score runs against him,” he said. Mandeep was part of the Indian squad for both the limited-overs series against England and New Zealand, but did not get a chance to play. He believes that sometimes the team is so good that one has to sit out. For that matter, he feels the IPL is important as it provides a platform to compete with global players. He added, “If India is the highest level, IPL comes right after, since all the international players take part in it and if you do well, there is a better chance of making it to the Indian team." As far as his batting is concerned, Mandeep has been tried at different spots which he believes is the sign of a good batsman. "In Australia, Rahul Dravid asked me to open and I did well so now I’m opening for Punjab in the domestic cricket as well. A good player should be able to bat in every condition and at every spot," he adds with delight. On the captaincy of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, Mandeep says that both of them give room for the players to express themselves and mix up with the youngsters nicely. He also playfully went to add that between South Africa's captain and fellow RCB teammate AB de Villiers and captain Kohli, the latter is a better player. “They both are really good batsmen, but when you consider the current performance, definitely Virat is a better player,” said India’s former Under-19 vice-captain. "It’s just that I haven’t got the chance to play in a big series so hopefully, in the next ODI or T20 series I’ll get a chance and will grab the opportunity,” he concluded.