Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, who is now an IPL expert with JioCinema, is mesmerised with the Bhojpuri commentary that's taken fans by storm over the past six weeks of the tournament. The former left-handed opening batter, who at the age of 22, was appointed South Africa's youngest-ever captain and held the position of Test skipper till his retirement in 2014, says he's become a huge fan of the word Bhojpuri. Speaking about why he thinks the streaming platform's 12-language commentary feeds, especially Bhojpuri and Punjabi, have become such huge hits, Smith exclaimed: "I love the word Bhojpuri. I love it. I think I might use that often."
"I was actually chatting with Anil Kumble last night; I think it's just the ability to connect with people on a level that feels like home. It's their language, so they can relate to it; it makes sense to them, and same with Punjabi. You're creating content now that speaks directly to the fan. They're loving the cricket on the field, but the information they are receiving around it is something they can connect with," the South Africa great added.
Smith wants Virat Kohli to use different scoring options like the sweep shot against spinners post powerplay after the star India batter's "taking the game deep" approach has come under a bit of criticism. Kohli has scored more than 400 runs opening the innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore in this IPL at a strike rate of over 130 but he has not been able to force the pace of scoring in the middle overs.
(With PTI Inputs)