Another season, same result for RCB

Opinion Tuesday 12/October/2021 16:57 PM
By: Anis Sajan, Vice Chairman, Danube group
Another season, same result for RCB

Virat Kohli’s dry run in IPL continued for the ninth year in a row as Royal Challengers’ Captain when his team was beaten by Kolkata Knight Riders at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

Virat Kohli has been playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore since the inception of IPL in 2008 and was appointed as Captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013 replacing Daniel Vettori of New Zealand. Before his stint as captain, Royal Challengers had twice made it to the finals of IPL, once in 2009 when they lost to Adam Gilchrist Deccan Chargers and in 2011 where they were soundly beaten by Chennai Super Kings.

When Virat Kohli was appointed as Captain in 2013, lot was expected by the fans that Virat would be the man who will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore to the title but the only time they made it to the finals under Virat Kohli’s Captaincy was in 2016 when they were pipped by David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad in a high scoring finals in Mumbai. In that season, Virat Kohli scored 973 runs at a stunning strike rate of 151 with four hundreds and seven fifties but it was still not enough for him to take his favorite franchise over the line.

Virat Kohli has scored totally 6,287 runs in 207 matches which is more than any player in the history of IPL but sadly he does not have a IPL Trophy in his name.

Why is that time and again, year after year, Virat Kohli could not win an IPL title for RCB? Le's talk about this year. In a crucial match against Sunrisers Hyderabad which was the bottom placed team where RCB was chasing just 141, the think tank decided to send Daniel Christian ahead of Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers and to everyone’s surprise, De Villiers was sent at number six and he got to face just 13 balls out of the 31 balls left in that game and RCB fell short by four runs which cost them crucial two points which would have taken them ahead of Chennai Supper Kings on points table with 20 points and would have given them two opportunities to reach the finals which was not in the case of an eliminator. Yesterday too, they were off to a great start in Sharjah and were cruising at 88/2 and were well placed to score around 150 plus when Virat Kohli got bowled playing across the line to Sunil Narine. The point that I want to bring to the notice of the readers that the Sharjah Pitch was difficult to bat after the power play

overs and new players found it difficult to go big from ball one and a set batsman could rotate strike and Virat Kohli has been the master of this which would have taken his side to a par score. More importantly why would you keep your most expensive player in Kyle Jamieson sit in the dugout who has good height and would have made life miserable for the opponent especially Sunil Narine who played a cameo to turn the tide in KKR’s favor with his pace and bounce. Why would you play a bits and pieces player in

Daniel Christian who in the tournament had not done anything special? In the past it's the bowling which had led Royal Challengers down but this time around RCB looked a complete unit, however sadly they did not utilize the right players at the right time. Shabaz Ahmed who was picked as a specialist spinner did not bowl a single over just because the opposition had left handers where as KKR bowled 12 overs of spin for Just 65 runs.

Virat Kohli is India's best batsman but there is a common saying that "good players don't make good Captains" and I am afraid Virat Kohli is one captain who falls in this category specially in the shortest format.