Earlier this month, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got knocked out of the IPL 2020, courtesy a six-wicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator.
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.
“100 percent, 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.
On the other hand, Gambhir’s long-time Delhi and India teammate Virender Sehwag said Kohli is a fine captain who is being let down by an unbalanced team and that sacking him is not going to solve the team’s woes.
Recently, RCB’s Parthiv Patel was asked about Kohli’s captaincy and the former stated that the latter shouldn’t be held accountable for team’s loss.
“He is very attacking player himself. He likes to get on with it. I thought he was slightly defensive in taking those decisions as a captain. Other than that, he has been a very successful India captain, no doubt about it. But if you look around RCB’s records in eight years, it is obviously been a long, long time,” Parthiv told cricket.com.
“I am sitting at this point of time neither in Sehwag’s shoes (Backing Kohli to continue as captain) nor in Gautam Gambhir’s shoes (replace Kohli as captain). The franchise should decide on it. I don’t think as players, we have anything to say about it.”
Virat Kohli’s record as an Indian captain is decent, but when it comes to the IPL, he has led the team to final just once in 2016.
Parthiv, however, feels that blaming the captain alone is unfair.
“I personally felt that we had a team that could win the tournament. Everyone in the camp felt it. We had all the bases covered. Sometimes the playoff games just don’t go your way. Scoring 130 in a playoff game, we came very close. I thought we fought really hard. But as I said, you can’t just blame the captain. There are a lot of other things as well – there is director of cricket, there is head coach – there are a lot of other things involved in it. To blame the captain is also not true,” the wicketkeeper-batsman said.
“I personally feel he (Kohli) should not be the only one held responsible for RCB not winning. The role of Mike Hesson, Simon Katich – quite experienced coaches, been there and thereabouts. There isn’t just one factor that is responsible. I feel Virat is not the only one who is responsible for RCB not winning,” he further remarked.
