Virat Kohli is certainly one of the stalwarts of the modern game. He is someone who has proved himself against every opposition and in every country. He had a bad tour of England in 2014 and he rectified that brilliantly in the next tour in 2018. Kohli is brilliant against both pace and spin. His performance in all the 3 formats of the game have been nothing short of outstanding. So much so that, the other modern greats like Steven Smith, Williamson, Root and to a certain extent, Ben Stokes is brilliant in one format of the game but just above average in the other formats. If one has to search for a great batsman across formats, Kohli wins hands down. However, Kohli the captain is a different problem altogether. Royal Challengers Bangalore is finding it the hard way. RCB’s huge Virat Kohli problem.
RCB’s huge Virat Kohli problem
What makes Kohli’s limited overs captaincy open to question is his lack of success for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL. Kohli has led RCB from 2013. It has been 8 years since he started to lead RCB and yet he does not have a single trophy to showcase. During the 8 years, RCB have finished runner up once and have reached playoffs a couple of times. These are not returns for a team that boasts of a couple of excellent batsmen in Kohli & De Villiers and yet, Kohli is unlikely to be replaced as the captain. If he is not replaced, Kohli himself must resign and must play in the next IPL as a player alone.
Kohli’s lack of contribution to the squad
A glimpse at the RCB team for this year’s IPL will reveal severe dearth of resources at their disposal. They have Finch, Kohli & De Villiers as the most experience players. Added to that, a whole bunch of allrounders in Moeen Ali, Sundar, Morris, Dube and a few bowlers who are absolute millionaires when it comes to T20. In almost every game, the eleven was filled with 3-4 allrounders. Except for Morris, none of the other are capable of playing an explosive innings.
Padikkal at the top was good. Kohli & De Villiers occupied number 1 and 2 slots. Beyond them, RCB was packed with allrounders when ideally there should have been a couple of batsmen. As a result, neither were they able to post huge totals that their bowlers can defend nor were they able to chase big totals. This is not a team that can win tournaments. This brings us to an important question that everyone must raise against Kohli.
What was Virat Kohli’s contribution to squad selection? It seems rather poor. Kohli with so much experience and that too as captain of the Indian team, must know what is an ideal combination that can win tournaments. He has played in a lot of countries and must have interacted with lot of players. He should have known who will be ideal finisher for RCB and must have suggested their names to the RCB management. This would have helped the RCB management during the bidding process. It looks like Kohli failed on this front. This is not the hallmark of a captain wanting to win. It is high time he is replaced.
Virat Kohli’s international record as captain
He has had some memorable wins, notably in Australia albeit without Warner & Smith and some humiliating losses in England, South Africa & New Zealand. Kohli has won most of the tests and limited overs in the sub-continent and he is the only Indian captain to have won more than one series in the West Indies. One glaring weakness in Kohli’s profile is lack of a global trophy. He had been the captain of the Indian team in the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup. He failed to win either. In both the tournament, India were considered overwhelming favourites to win the title but the team failed. Infact, the Indian team failed miserably in the finals of the Champions Trophy and in the semi-finals in the World Cup and yet there is not even a murmur to replace him as the captain atleast in the limited overs format.
Any captain with about 8 years of leading a side in a high pressure tournament like IPL would have gained sufficient experience and would have certainly won some global tournaments. However, Kohli hasn’t. It looks like his success in test cricket, albeit in favourable conditions, have ensured that he continues to be the captain across all the formats.
Gambhir & Manjrekar wants Kohli replaced
Now, finally, Gautham Gambhir and Sanjay Manjrekar have raised their voice for Kohli to be replaced as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Gambhir said: “100%, because the problem is about accountability. Eight years into the tournament], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain… forget about 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.
“The problem and the accountability starts from the top, not from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader. You’re the leader, you’re the captain. When you get the credit, you should take the criticism as well.
“The onus is not so much with the captain himself, it’s got to be with the owners because they are the people who appoint the captain and decide what kind of leadership they want for the team,” Manjrekar said.
What Gambhir & Manjrekar says is true. Accountability certainly starts with the captain. A wonderful example of accountability was Anil Kumble. Kumble was the Indian team captain for a very short time. He was injured for one of the test against Australia when Dhoni took over the captaincy for that specific game. India won that test and Kumble must have felt Dhoni to have performed a better job than him. Hence, he resigned his captaincy. Kohli must follow in the steps of Anil Kumble and will have to resign. However, I do not see that happening. Hence, the RCB management must decide for him and relieve him of captaincy.