In the IPL match that happened on October 15 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Virat Kohli's decision to push AB de Villiers down the batting order in their game against KXIP majorly backfired for the team. Unable to defend their total of 171, RCB lost to Punjab as half-centuries from Chris Gayle and skipper KL Rahul paved way for the latter's victory.

A lot of viewers were taken by surprise when Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube came out to bat at No. 4 and 5, ahead of AB de Villiers, who came in at No. 6. Virat Kohli's bizarre move was especially criticized, since de Villiers registered a match-winning 33-ball 73* in RCB's previous match against KKR in the same ground when he came to the field at No. 4. Speaking about it, former cricketer and analyst Aakash Chopra opined that Virat Kohli's poor decision was one of the reasons for RCB's loss and added that CSK's skipper MS Dhoni wouldn't make the same mistakes that Virat Kohli did. "Faf might open the innings for CSK as Delhi have Axar Patel in their ranks who has had an incredible record against Shane Watson. These days, just to avoid matchups, AB de Villiers is demoted down the batting order. But I believe that MS Dhoni won't commit the same mistakes that Virat Kohli did and Faf du Plessis will have a very good game against Delhi Capitals," Aakash Chopra said. CSK will take on Delhi Capitals in the 34th match of the tournament at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium tonight.

During the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli took responsibility for the team's defeat against KXIP. "It was quite surprising, because it went down to the wire. A bit of pressure can confuse you, it was a good performance by Kings XI in the end. We had a chat, it (AB batting at No. 6) was a message about the left-hand, right-hand combination. Sometimes these decisions you take, don't come off. But I think 170 was a decent score. That's the idea, get your eye in and start hitting. But we were not able to put them under pressure. We take a lot of pride as a bowling side, but tonight was one of those nights, as it didn't come off," the skipper said.