Gujarat Cricket Association reveals actual REASON behind RCB's cancelled practice and Virat Kohli's threat

The reports of threat to Virat Kohliand RCB's cancelled practice ahead on the eliminator against Rajasthan Royals on May 22 have been called out the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA).

"There was no terror threat. We had made provision for both the Rajasthan Royals and RCB to practice at the Gujarat College ground. RCB were supposed to practice from 2 to 5pm, before they changed it to 3-6pm, as the light is good till 6.30pm in the summer in Ahmedabad. However, the Rajasthan Royals practiced from 3.30 to 6.30pm at the Gujarat College ground with their full squad," Anil Patel, secretary of GCA said.

Earlier, it was reported that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had to cancel their solitary practice session before the IPLEliminator match against Rajasthan Royals due to security reasons, a report has claimed. Concerns around star player Virat Kohli's security prompted the franchise to abandon its practice session as well as the pre-match press conference.

According to a report inAnandabazaar Patrika, RCB abandoned the session after Gujarat Police arrested four people from Ahmedabad over suspicion of terrorist activity.

RCB were supposed to practice at theGujaratCollege Ground ahead of the match scheduled at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

After the police informed both the franchises about the arrests, the Bengaluru-based team acted on the call and cancelled all commitments of the day while Rajasthan went ahead with its schedule.

"Virat Kohli learned about the arrests after arriving in Ahmedabad. He is a national treasure, and his security is our utmost priority," Vijay Singha Jwala, a police officer was quoted as saying by the publication.

"RCB did not want to take a risk. They informed us that there would be no practice session. Rajasthan Royals were also informed about the development, but they had no problems going ahead with their practice."

Subsequently, the security was beefed up outside RCB's team hotel with IPL-accredited membersalso not being allowed to enter the hotel premises.

As for the Royals, a 'green corridor' was prepared and three police convoys escorted the team bus. While skipper Sanju Samson arrived late, the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag and Yuzvendra Chahal skipped the practice session and remained at the hotel.

As the players went through their drills, heavy security patrolled the ground.

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RCB managed to qualify for the playoffs after a remarkable turnaround in form which saw them win six matches on the bounce. In the virtual knockout that was the final league match,RCB staved off the Chennai Super Kings challenge to set up the Eliminator match against Rajasthan Royals.

The winner of the Eliminator will square up against SunRisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 in Chennai, with the winner qualifying for the final to face Kolkata Knight Riders.

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen, Shubham Dubey, Keshav Maharaj, Donovan Ferreira, Navdeep Saini, Shimron Hetmyer, Tanush Kotian, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik(w), Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Yash Dayal, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Siraj, Swapnil Singh, Anuj Rawat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Himanshu Sharma, Mayank Dagar, Alzarri Joseph, Manoj Bhandage, Akash Deep, Saurav Chauhan, Rajan Kumar, Tom Curran

(With inputs from agencies)