Royal Challengers Bangalore again failed in their quest to get their first Indian Premier League title. RCB impressed initially but failed to gain momentum in the last five matches. They qualified for the playoffs by the thinnest of the margins even thought they lost their last five matches of the season. They were knocked out of the IPL 2020 after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets in the eliminator on Friday.
It has been a long wait for RCB to get the title. They are one of the three teams to never win the title and have performed dismally in the last three editions. IPL 2020 was thought to be the redemption year but the last match has again put the criticism firmly in the court of captain Virat Kohli.
RCB have put the responsibility on Kohli to lead the side to the IPL title for the past 8 years but he hasn’t been able to deliver the results for them. Even though RCB reached the finals in 2016, they have largely failed to continually deliver the desired results.
Former India batsman and two-time IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir talked about Kohli’s captaincy after RCB’s loss to SRH and said that it is time for the 32-year-old to be held accountable for the results. When asked if he would change the captaincy, this is what Gautam said:-
“100%, because the problem is about accountability. Eight years into the tournament [without a trophy], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain…forget about captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability. A captain needs to take accountability,’ Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo.
“It’s not only about one year, it’s not only about this. I have nothing against Virat Kohli but somewhere down the line, he needs to put his hand up and say, ‘yes, I am responsible. I am accountable’.
.@GautamGambhir says it is time for Bangalore to look beyond Virat Kohli as captain ?https://t.co/hbe8aQOUsg #T20Timeout pic.twitter.com/9ntEpG1uDY
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 7, 2020
“Eight years is a long, long time. Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy [for the Kings XI Punjab], he couldn’t deliver and he was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli…not at all. Dhoni has won three [IPL] titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that’s the reason they’ve captained for such a long time because they’ve delivered. I’m sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people.
“The problem and the accountability starts from the top, not from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader. You’re the leader, you’re the captain. When you get the credit, you should take the criticism as well.
Batting first, RCB could only manage 131 runs in 20 overs with only AB de Villiers able to get going.RCB bowlers made it difficult for the SRH batsmen but ultimately failed to defend the target. Virat could only manage a score of 6 on Friday.
Source: Hindustan Times
