Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir advises RCB franchises to move beyond Virat Kohli as the captain. Virat Kohli was appointed as RCB skipper in 2013 and failed to lift the trophy till now(2020) under his captaincy.
Virat Kohli led RCB fails to lift maiden title
Though Virat Kohli bags numerous records he still fails to make add the trophy in RCB’s cabin. RCB is not the only team that failed to lift the IPL trophy. RCB, KXIP, and DC are the three teams that failed to lift their maiden IPL title.
Though KXIP and DC failed they use to change their strategy every year particularly with their captains. But RCB still sticks with Virat Kohli and waits for him to lift the maiden title.
Gambhir advice RCB to look beyond Virat Kohli
When asked whether Kohli should be replaced as the skipper, Gambhir told, “100 percent, because the problem is about accountability. Eight years into the tournament (without a trophy), eight years is a long time.”
Gambhir, who himself led Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL titles, says no other player has gotten the long rope as Kohli without winning a title and it’s time he is made accountable for the results.
“Tell me any other captain forget about the captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability,” Gambhir said.
Gambhir slams Kohli
Gambhir says Kohli has to himself take the responsibility. “…somewhere down the line, he needs to put his hand up and say, ‘yes, I am responsible. I am accountable’,” he said. Gambhir also cited the example of Ravichandran Ashwin who was removed as Kings XI Punjab captain just after two seasons.
“Eight years is a long, long time. Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy, he couldn’t deliver and he was removed,” the 38-year-old said. Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have been the captains of their respective IPL franchises are because of the fact that they have delivered trophies, argued Gambhir.
Gautam points out MSD and Rohit Sharma’s captaincy
“We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli…not at all. Dhoni has won three (IPL) titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that’s the reason they’ve captained for such a long time because they’ve delivered,” he said.
“I’m sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people,” he added. RCB were impressive at the start of the season, winning seven of their 10 matches.
However, they lost their next five matches and Gambhir said they didn’t even deserve to qualify for the playoffs. “You can keep saying ‘we qualified for the playoffs and we deserved to qualify for the playoffs’, absolutely not. RCB actually never deserved to qualify for the playoffs,” he said.
RCB run with their two key player – Gautam
The former India opener even claimed that RCB has become a team of two players – Kohli and AB de Villiers.
“And then they should have had a squad, probably if Virat wanted to open, they should have picked a middle-order batter in the auction. But again it was all about Virat and AB (de Villiers),” he said.
“Imagine if AB would have had a bad season, tell me what would have happened to RCB. He was the one who actually won them two or three games out of seven. I don’t think as a unit they’ve done anything different from what they did last year. It’s exactly the same this year as well. Only because you’ve qualified for the playoffs, just because of one individual’s absolute brilliance, it doesn’t make you a strong contender to win the IPL,” he added.
