The match against Chargers, it should be mentioned, could’ve easily gone the other way had it not been for the Challengers’s attack grabbing a few quick wickets.

On Monday at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, when the hosts face Kings XI Punjab, among the many questions posed, there’ll be the bigger one, reflecting on how Rahul Dravid, the captain, and Virat Kohli, India’s under-19 skipper and an obvious talent, haven’t got going as yet. To be specific, the two batsmen, at best, have floundered good starts.

Kohli’s exploits in the recent U-19 World Cup and two commendable first-class seasons had catapulted him to poster-boy status among the younger lot. As a result, Challengers eyed him as a prized catch during the player auctions.

After six IPL games, Kohli is struggling to find his feet and form, with a mere 88 runs from six innings at an average of 17.60. Despite two good starts — a 14-ball 23 and 29-ball 38 — the youngster has inadvertently failed to convert them, often paying the price in pursuit of flamboyance.

Against the Chargers, just when he looked settled to take his side to a big total, he holed out one to deep extra-cover off RP Singh in the 14th over. Such ambitious shots may appear to be commonplace in this tournament, but at that crucial juncture, it only ended hopes of a bigger total. Kohli’s skipper Dravid is faced with a similar situation and statistics clearly tell the story. Scores of 2, 32, 0, 0, 38, 26 are a testimony to the fact that one of the most experienced campaigners in the Challengers’s side is struggling. Like Kohli, Dravid too has gotten off to starts and failed to convert. In fact, he has also tried batting in various positions, from the opening to the middle-order, but in vain.

The positive, nevertheless, for the beleaguered skipper is that he got runs in his last two innings. On Saturday evening, Dravid gave the final impetus to his team’s scoring rate before falling to the final ball of the innings. If that indicates he’s found the touch, then Dravid simply needs to carry on.