Heads of RCB’s coaching staff, Mike Hesson and Simon Katich, backed Virat Kohli to lead the franchise despite yet another IPL failure and the criticism around it.
RCB got knocked out of the 2020 edition of the tournament, courtesy a six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator at Abu Dhabi on Friday (November 6).
After the match, former India opener Gautam Gambhir opined that it’s high time RCB remove Kohli as a captain since he has failed to deliver despite being at the helm of affairs for eight years.
"From leadership point of view we are very fortunate to have him, he is highly professional and very well respected by the team," RCB’s chief coach Katich said during a webinar, as quoted by PTI.
"He is very invested in his group and spent a lot of time with the younger players, particularly Devdutt Padikkal. That's the kind of sight a lot of people don't see. We hung in the contest and fought right till the end and Virat can take a lot of credit for that."
In 15 innings this season, Kohli amassed 466 runs. However, his strike-rate of 121.35 didn’t help RCB as they were among the teams with lowest run rates in the middle overs.
"From batting perspective, we did have consistent partnerships from Padikkal and (Aaron) Finch (in the first half) but then Virat came in to the innings outside the powerpay in a lot of games and that was a challenge for him," Katich stated.
"But we all saw his class, particularly the game against Chennai (Super Kings), where he scored 90 odd in some 52 balls."
RCB's director of cricket operations, Hesson, said the team will do with a bit of tweaking instead of a complete revamp.
"One thing is that we got first-hand knowledge of players. We have worked with them for 10-12 weeks and got to know them intimately, got a good idea and gathered a lot of good information."
"In the current scenario, we know we have to tweak but not overhaul... finishing touches definitely."
Asked about plans for next season, Hesson said, "We will review the performance of the squad and make some decisions. No decisions have been made just yet."
RCB were outstanding in the first half, winning 7 out of their 10 games but the team failed to carry the momentum in the business end of the tournament, losing five successive matches.
Reflecting on the campaign, Hesson said: "It was a season of two halves for us. As the wicket got slower we could not adapt, and batting first provided further challenges in the last five games. We didn't quite get the right balance, but it was not due to not providing opportunities to different players."
"The new support staff members understand their role. They know the players have a very stable platform to work on. We have to be more flexible, more adaptable. The skill sets required will need tweaking. The captain has played a huge part. Our core group of players is good but we certainly need a little bit of tweaking. It's always a balancing act."
(With PTI inputs)
