Batting great Virat Kohli failed to clinch the IPL trophy in what was his last season as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain.
In the IPL 2021 Eliminator match at Sharjah, RCB suffered a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and were knocked out of the cash-rich tournament on Monday (October 11).
Kohli, who led the Bangalore-based franchise for a decade, finished with 66 wins and 70 defeats in 140 games. Under his captaincy, the best result RCB achieved is reaching the final in the 2026 edition of IPL.
No wonder, former England skipper Michael Vaughan believes Kohli will see himself as a failure in IPL captaincy.
"His legacy as captain in IPL cricket will be one that didn't win. That's what it's about, you know high-level sport is about getting over the line, winning trophies, particularly when you're at the standard of what Virat Kohli is at. I'm certainly not saying that he is, but he will see himself as a failure in IPL captaincy -- because he is such a driven player and person - since he's not got that trophy in his hands," Vaughan said while speaking on Cricbuzz after the game.
"In terms of what Virat is doing with the Test team and Test match cricket and developing that Indian Test match team is terrific. You'd have to say and be honest that in one-day cricket and T20 cricket with the national side and with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he has fallen a long way short," he added.
Coming to the Eliminator match, RCB posted a below-par 138/7 in their allotted 20 overs, which KKR chased down with two balls to spare.
According to Vaughan, RCB were well-prepared for IPL 2021 and had the perfect team combination.
"The talent and the squads that he has to work with is right up there with the best. So, the RCB team is very top heavy with the batting. This year, with the quality of Maxwell and Harshal Patel and Yuzi Chahal, they had the bowling to match the batting, and yet they have fallen short," he said.
