Mumbai: Captain Virat Kohli on Sunday said Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) star-studded batting line-up will be able to express itself better in IPL-8, with the arrival of players such as Darren Sammy and S Badrinath in the team.
Along with the former West Indies captain, Dinesh Karthik was also bought at the auction and 26-year old Kohli said that it has provided depth to their batting line-up.
"This season will be pretty different for us, as in the past Chris (Gayle), AB (De Villiers) and I have played under a lot of pressure because the batting revolved around the three of us. This will be a better season for RCB.
"If you look at some of the other teams, they have a lot of depth in their batting, which meant the guys could go and express themselves and play freely," Kohli said after the team's jersey was launched here.
Things, this time around, could change for the better for RCB.
"We had to be cautious, and at the same time look to score runs which sort of put us under pressure at times. But this time we will have Dinesh Karthik, Darren Sammy, Badrinath and youngsters like Mandeep Singh coming in.
"It is a very strong batting unit with good depth and a great mixture of Indian youngsters and great bowlers from around the world and some good power hitters.
"This season, the three of us can play the way we always wanted to play in T20 cricket - like the way AB played in the World Cup. I am sure he will be feeling the same and he will be feeling relieved that he can start playing (his shots) from ball one, two or three. That is pretty exciting for us as a team," he said.
Kohli said they have a good chance to win the IPL this time. "I am sure that with the players we have retained and the ones we bought in the auction, we can create a good combination which gives us a good chance in the tournament.
"If 11 players believe that we can win, then we will surely do well in the tournament," Kohli said.
World Cup Player of the Tournament Mitchell Starc has a niggling knee injury and Kohli said the Australian left-arm pacer is expected to join the team after three or four games.
"He has had a couple of weeks rest and he will be joining us after three or four games. It is a great thing, because you don't want him to get injured midway through the tournament. We would rather have him come in fresh at the business end. The way he is bowling right now, he is probably the best fast bowler in the world at this stage.
"We would love to have him at 100 percent fitness and the way he is bowling, he can turn things around for us later on. I hope he is coming into the good momentum that we create early on and he will only strengthen things for us, when he comes in," he said.
Asked if India players are tired after the long Australian tour, he said: "We have been out for a long time and it was a very high intensity tour with the Test series, the tri-series and the World Cup.
"The body breaks down, but as professional cricketers we learn how to recover from it and the 8-9 days break in between has helped us. I am looking forward to the IPL."
The star batsman observed that players won't find it too difficult to adapt to T20 after playing in Tests and the World Cup.
"It is not that difficult to switch playing from the longer format of the game to T20 cricket because you can be more relaxed and expressive. We have world-class players. I think it is very important for a cricketer to play without stress in the shorter format of the game.
"I think if you switch from T20 cricket to Test cricket, it will be more challenging for the batsman. IPL has always been the tournament where players enjoy their cricket and that is the reason you see a different level of performance from a lot of players, because they are relaxed."
