Amidst talk about his shoulder injury, Indian skipper Virat Kohli joined his Indian Premier League team Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday. The tenth edition of the IPL is set to begin on April 5 with RCB facing defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the opener. RCB had lost to SRH in the final last season.

Kohli will miss the first week of IPL 10 due to a shoulder injury he sustained during the India-Australia series. He missed the crucial fourth and final Test at Dharamsala. The Indian skipper is expected to be back on the field for RCB in the second week of the tournament after an assessment of his shoulder by team physios. In a post on their RCB’s social networking page, a video shows Kohli arriving at the hotel and greeting Chris Gayle and other players of the team.

In Kohli’s absence, South Africa’s AB de Villiers is supposed to lead the team. The explosive South African batsman also arrived in Bengaluru on Monday to join the team. However, he too was ruled out of a domestic tournament in South Africa, questioning his fitness ahead of the first clash.

RCB are already without KL Rahul, who was ruled out of the entire tournament due to a shoulder injury which requires surgery. However, reports have emerged that Australia’s Shane Watson will open the innings with Chris Gayle.

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“In the absence of Virat and KL Rahul, there are chances that I would be asked to bat at the top — a position which I enjoy the most and have been doing well, all my career. However, he will be happy to bat at any position,” Watson said.

Watson also liked the challenge the team faced without the likes of Kohli and Rahul during the initial matches, but backed the youngsters to come good. “It will be challenging for us to miss the services of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul for a few games, but the team has players like Sarfaraz Khan, Sachin Baby and Mandeep Singh, who could be good replacements,” he said.