IPL Special
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In the Indian Premier League, at the start of any particular season, there is hardly ever one team who stand out as clear favourites. It can be argued that Chennai Super Kings were perennial picks for the play-offs before they were banned in 2016. Even so, the question asked was always more about who could stop the yellow brigade, and not how they would romp to victory in style.
This year, then, stands out in that particular aspect. From the very beginning, even before a ball was bowled, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were considered favourites for their maiden title. It was easy to see why – Virat Kohli is the best limitedovers cricketer at present and he scored 973 runs in the 2016 season, helping his side finish runners-up. With Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and newly bought Tymal Mills to back him up, surely a final step-up to the victory podium was an obvious one for this franchise.
Instead, they finished last, winning three out of 14 games. So, what went wrong for Bangalore, and indeed Kohli, who has become India’s skipper across all formats in the year gone by?
Away from Kohli’s stack of runs last season, India opener KL Rahul played a pivotal role as their line-up’s anchor. He scored 397 runs, including four successive half-centuries when Gayle was dropped from the side for poor form. He became the bedrock of the Bangalore batting order. While his captain, along with De Villiers (who scored 687 runs last season), was busy demolishing bowling attacks, Rahul provided the all-round balance that is needed by every franchise from their secondary batsmen.
In stark contrast, this season, not one Royal Challengers batsman has been able to go past Rahul’s tally from last season. Kohli, who missed out the first fortnight owing to a shoulder injury, still notched up the highest – 308 runs from ten games. Gayle (200 runs in nine matches) was inconsistent at best again, while De Villiers (216 runs in nine matches) was laid low due to a back problem. It was too much for the remaining batsmen – Mandeep Singh (188 runs in 11 matches), Travis Head (151 runs in seven matches), Kedar Jadhav (267 runs in 13 matches) and Stuart Binny (78 runs in eight matches) – to pick up the pieces.
They simply missed that one batsman who could just score runs on a consistent basis.
Even playing around with different combinations – including dropping
Gayle and Shane Watson at different times – didn’t help matters. When not a single batsman crossed 400 in a 14match league stage, nothing else – injuries or bowling combination – really matters.
However, this latter aspect is not a recent phenomenon in Bangalore’s case. Ever since their inception, this franchise has struggled to find an optimal balance in their squad. In the initial years, under Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, they were struggling to find an identity. Through the inclusion of Kohli and Kevin Pietersen, shrewd auction buys of Gayle and De Villiers, and later big-money purchases of Yuvraj Singh ($2.33 million in 2014) and Dinesh Karthik ($1.8 million USD in 2015), at least they gained acknowledgment of T20 lovers the world over. This franchise was synonymous with power hitting, but little else.
This is where a peculiar question arises over Kohli’s leadership. He has been at the helm of Royal Challengers’ affairs since 2013 and is the third longest serving captain in IPL history, after Mahnedra Singh Dhoni (2008-2015 for Chennai Super Kings) and Gautam Gambhir (2011-2017 for Kolkata Knight Riders). Both of them have two IPL titles to their name, and Kohli has none.
Even Rohit Sharma, who assumed captaincy of the Mumbai Indians midway through the 2013 season after Ricky Ponting stepped down, has lifted the IPL trophy twice.
It puts the spotlight on Kohli the captain, for the batsman in him can only do so much. This is irksome to India’s current skipper, who is an undisputed long-term choice across all three formats, that he has not won the premier limited-overs domestic competition in his country despite repeated attempts.
The word ‘repeated’ is key here. Surely, as captain, Kohli enjoys immense authority over how the Royal Challengers squad for any IPL season shapes up. He was the clear voice behind Yuvraj’s big-money purchase, and there is no voice of argument when he decides to bench Gayle repeatedly. Perhaps only Dhoni has enjoyed such unilateral influence over the fate of an IPL team, yet the results enjoyed by both franchises are way different.
The major fault – on part of Kohli and those advising him at the Bangalore franchise – lies in the glaring team imbalance. While the Royal Challengers have been known to make big-money purchases in player auctions, they have always been shy of investing in proper bowling resources. It was back in 2012 and 2013 seasons that they brought Indian internationals R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh and Jaidev Unadkat on board, but it didn’t work out.
Over the years, Mitchell Starc (pulled out of 2017 season), Adam Milne and Samuel Badree are the only bowlers to have survived.
As such, Mills’s inclusion at approximately $2 million raised eyebrows. It was not only a departure from the norm for this franchise, but a frantic effort to get the bowling balance right for this season. However, with five wickets in five matches (economy 8.57), the England T20 international didn’t set the stage alight like he did in the threematch series against India in January.
“We just didn’t get good performances together. It was a lack of intent, a fear of failing (again and again), and that’s never good in a tournament like this. But we have to embrace it, take it in our stride and learn. We have to start afresh as a franchise. Maybe, it is a blessing in disguise. It depends on how many players we can retain. But we do have guys who we have identified,” Kohli said, looking back at a disastrous 2017 season.
At the time of writing, the BCCI is yet to decide if retention will happen ahead of the 2018 IPL, as all players are expected to return to the auction pool in a mega reset of the tournament.
If it so transpires, Kohli and Royal Challengers Bangalore will part company without having tasted success, or even getting a chance to address the shipwreck that was this 2017 season.
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. It depends on how many players we can retain. But we have guys we have identified