Virat Kohli may enjoy a 64.64% win percentage across all formats for India, but despite his sufficing record as a captain of the national team, he hasn’t tasted the same success when it comes to leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In fact, under the leadership of Virat Kohli, RCB has played 110 matches, losing 55 matches and winning 49. But what’s alarming here is the fact that the team has always finished bottom-dwellers.
Since Kohli took charge of RCB in 2011, they’ve ranked at the bottom twice – in 2017 and 2019 – while securing the sixth position out of eight in 2018 and second last in 2014. Let alone being in the top 5, Aakash Chopra – Kohli’s former Delhi teammate and ex-India opener believes the reason for Kohli’s failure is not one but many – starting with a failure to put together a strong team.
“He [Kohli] is surely not a successful IPL captain. The team has not done well, it is actually a fact. And it is not one or two years, but many seasons. There are manifold reasons for that. First thing is that they don’t pick the correct team. If you see their squad’s strength, you can observe glaring mistakes. You can punch holes in them,” Chopra said while responding to a question on his YouTube channel.
“There are no fast bowlers, who will bowl at the death, who will bat at No.5 and No.6. They have never addressed these problems. It is a top-heavy batting team, always a thin bowling line-up, the same Yuzi Chahal, just the same fast bowler, that’s about it. If you don’t pick the team properly, don’t expect miracles from a captain.”
Another reason for the failure, Chopra believes, is lack of communication between the Indian skipper and the management, that is responsible to pick the players at the auction.
“Second reason is that when the Indian team captain is the skipper of your franchise, you don’t stretch his bandwidth beyond a point. This is with regards to once again the squad selection. The other people need to do a very good job at the time of squad selection,” Chopra said.
“I am sure MS Dhoni would have given the CSK management a list of 3-4 players to be picked and left the rest to the support staff, when he was the Indian captain. It is almost impossible for you to sit in the auction and spoon feed the management to pick a particular team. You have to support him, I don’t think Kohli has had that kind of support from his support staff.”
IPL 2020 was to be held in the end of March but has been postponed indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic outburst.
Do you agree with what Aakash Chopra said about Virat Kohli and his captaincy for RCB? Let us know in the comments below. Read more such massively-hit content on Mad Over Cricket.
