ANOTHER CLOSE RUN, BUT LITTLE JOY FOR ROYAL CHALLENGERS CAPTAIN KOHLI
Virat Kohli’s dry run in the Indian Premier League continued for the ninth year in a row as the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain when his team were beaten by Kolkata Knight Riders at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Kohli has been playing for RCB since the inception of IPL in 2008 and was appointed as skipper in 2013, replacing Daniel Vettori of New Zealand. Before his stint as captain, RCB had twice made it to the final of the IPL.
When Kohli was appointed as captain, a lot was expected by the fans that he would be the man to lead RCB to the title, but the only time they made it to the final under his captaincy was in 2016. That season, 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 favourite franchise over the line.
Kohli has scored 6,287 runs in 207 IPL matches, more than any other player in the IPL’s history, but sadly he does not have that precious silverware.
Why is that time and again, Virat Kohli could not win an IPL title for RCB? Let’s talk about this year. In a crucial match against Sunrisers Hyderabad who were the bottom-placed team and RCB were chasing just 141, the think tank decided to send Daniel Christian ahead of Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. De Villiers was sent at No 6. 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 to the top of the table and given them two shots at the final.
On Monday, too, they were off to a great start in Sharjah when Kohli got bowled playing across the line to Sunil Narine. The Sharjah pitch was difficult to bat on and new players found it difficult to go big from ball one and a set batsman could rotate strike. 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 in the dugout? He has good height and would have made life miserable for the opponents.
In the past, it’s the bowling that had let RCB down, but this time around they looked a complete unit. However, sadly they did not utilise the right players at the right time. Shabaz Ahmad, picked as a specialist spinner, didn’t bowl a single over, whereas KKR bowled 12 overs of spin for just 65.
There must be a reason why Rohit Sharma has won the IPL five times, MS Dhoni has won it thrice and Gautam Gambhir twice. Kohli is India’s best batsman but there is a common saying that ‘good players don’t make good captains’ and I am afraid Kohli is one captain who falls in this category — especially in the shortest format.