Virat Kohli has proved himself to be a reliable captain in international cricket for several years now, but the same captaincy skills have not translated well to the IPL. His captaincy has helped carry Royal Challengers Bangalore to the finals, but they team has still failed to lift the cup and earn a win. But former Kolkata Knight Riders captain and two-time IPL winner Gautam Gambhir pointed out a few reasons behind RCB’s failures.
“What Virat Kohli has said, when you are happy with your squad as a captain, you would have already planned which playing XI you want to play. If you are satisfied, then the calmness also comes along. Because there are times that you do not come to know your best XI in the entire tournament and that is why you make a lot of changes,” Gambhir said on Star Sports’ Cricket Connected show.
“I still feel that RCB look a little batting-heavy. But one thing that you will see a little different is that the bowlers will be happy because they will not have to play 7 matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.”
Gambhir went further, and explained the differences between captaincy styles of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
“The biggest difference between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni is that MS Dhoni persists with his players for 6-7 matches. If you see RCB’s trend, they make changes very quickly because they have a doubt that their playing XI does not have a proper balance.”
“So I would want to see from RCB that even if the start is not good, they should persist with their playing XI and give them 6-7 matches. Because then only the players will give you performances and not if you give one or two matches. So if Virat Kohli has calmness in his mind that this is the most balanced squad, the important thing will be how they perform and how much he persists with these players.”
The IPL 2020 is set to kickoff on 19 September, with RCB having their first match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 21st September at the Dubai International Stadium.