RCB’S POOR SHOW, LOW SCORE AND HIS AGGRESSIVE DEMEANOUR MOUNTS HIS CHALLENGES
irat Kohli is going through a testing time these days. The latest to hit him was his team, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s debacle on Sunday when they were bowled out for the lowest score in the Indian Premier League. Though he led Team India to victory in the series against Australia, his form and temperament are both being put under heavy trial.
Known for his fighting qualities, Kohli is likely to fight back; but how successful will he be in that effort with his aggressive demeanour will be interesting to watch.
Bangalore’s batting on Sunday with the highest individual score of nine, starting from Kohli’s duck, and his remarks after the match that his batsmen’s show was unacceptable, can get people to assume that his batsmen did not try or gave away their wickets.
“Our worst batting performance,” Kohli said “It really hurts. After the kind of half that we had, we thought we could capitalise and chase it down. Reckless batting … I can’t say anything at the moment. It was that bad. This is just not acceptable,” he’d remarked.
It is during these moments that the composure like what Mahendra Singh Dhoni displays is needed. Hitting out at his team when he himself failed could have been confined to the dressing room rather than at a press conference.
Kohli was also out of form during the recent Australian series. Like in England, during the 2014 series, the fact that he had to struggle for runs on home wickets is alarming. In the 2014 series, Kohli wasn’t Team India captain; but now with the added pressure of captaincy he will need all his mental energies to regain form.
The skirmishes with Australian skipper Steve Smith during the Test series, and his subsequent statement that he wasn’t friends with the Australian players, all adds up to the pressure to perform as a player. Many laud his aggressive nature and fighting spirit, but greater the brashness, tougher will it be to recover from challenges.
After falling for a duck on Sunday, Kohli gestured to show that he was distracted by some movement above the sight screen. If that was so, he should have moved away from playing the delivery; instead he played and edged to slip. After commenting on the distraction, which according to him cost his wicket, he said that other nine
Nothing to review
When Kohli was asked whether he could review his team’s batting, his remark was “There’s nothing to review about the second half …. it was that bad.”
But the glaring fact is that Sunday’s loss was Royal Challengers’ fifth defeat, and the team have now slipped to the bottom of the points table with half their games over. Kohli will need his full team’s support if they are to reach the play-offs. In fact, now the team must win at least five of their remaining seven matches to make it to the next round.
Last season, Kohli was in stupendous form in the IPL. If Kohli is able to back his aggressive talk with some aggressive batting as well, Bengaluru should rise again. But right now all odds are against this team, who on the same day (April 23) in 2013 had posted IPL’s highest total of 263 for five under Kohli against Pune Warriors.