Will Jacks has hogged the limelight since playing a majestic knock for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) against Gujarat Titans (GT). Not only did he smashed an unbeaten 41-ball century, the English swashbuckler also ended RCB's 14-year drought of chasing down 200 or more in the IPL making it only second such instance.
Jacks stitched an unbeaten 166-run partnership with Virat Kohli in just 73 deliveries as RCB chased the 201-run target in just 16 overs. Meanwhile, after the match, Jacks' old social media post for the latter has gone viral in which the England batter has addressed Kohli as 'King' after his brilliant knock for India against Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2022 on October 23. "The king for a reason @imVkohli," Jacks' post read.
For the unversed, Virat Kohli played a majestic knock against arch-rivals Pakistan as India chased down 160 runs in the last-ball thriller. Kohli remained unbeaten on 82 off 53 balls with six fours and four sixes during his stay in the middle. At one stage, India were reeling at 31/4 and from there, Kohli got India over the line and Jacks' reaction was to that knock.
Notably, Kohli was inawe of Jacks' powerhitting as he got the best seat in the house to witness the carnage. Moreover, the former RCB skipper was the happiest and pumped up when his batting partner (Jacks) got to his maiden century in IPL off just 41 balls, the fifth fastest in the history of cash-rich league.
Jacks was happy to spend time with 'legend' Kohli and felt it was a huge learning curve to be in the middle with the former India skipper. He also credited the latter for taking pressure off him when he was struggling at one point during his innings. "Amazing feeling right now. Faf and Virat got us off to a very good start. I struggled early on, but Virat kept his intensity up and gave me the chance to find my rhythm. Once we had the time-out, we said, "let's get two really good overs here and we win the game." Once that happened, I just kept going and amazing feeling right now. I was trying to be positive (against spin early on), was just struggling. I was trying to overhit the ball, probably little bit tensed.
"Once I got one away off Mohit, I relaxed, got into my innings and then just trusted myself. Next game, hopefully I do that earlier. (Batting with Kohli) It's amazing, he's a legend of the game and is someone everyone looks up to. To spend some time in the middle is a great feeling a huge learning curve. When I go away from the IPL, I'll learn so much from batting with him and playing with him. I'll try to take it all on board. I need to be a bit more adaptable at the beginning of my innings and get myself in a little bit quicker. I was lucky today because 17 off 17 is not going to win you many games. The other guys around me saved me earlier today," Jacks said in the post-match presentation.
