Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni
Former Indian cricketer and two-time IPL winning captain, Gautam Gamnhir, on Monday outlined the difference in captaincy between Rpyal Challenger Bangalore's Virat Kohli and Chennai Super Kings' skipper MS Dhoni and in doing so offered a little piece of advice to the former.
Gambhir pointed out that Kohli's lack of trust in his playing XI and constant changes to his combination is one of the key reason behind RCB's struggle each year in IPL. Gambhir feels that constant changes to the playing XI can lead to inconsistency. RCB finished at the bottom end of the table on each of the last three seasons.
"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 during the latest episode of Star Sports Cricket Connected.
"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.
"If they start with Moeen Ali, they should give him 6-7 matches. If he doesn't perform in the beginning, they should not get in another player. 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."
Gambhir's comment came just a few days after Kohli admitted that the presemt RCB squad is the most balanced side he has seen since 2016, the year they had last reached the IPL final.
Gambhir, however, feels that RCB still looks batting heavy at the moment and that their bowlers need ti truly step up in UAE conditions.
"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.
"You will be playing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi which probably have bigger grounds, wickets are not as flat as Chinnaswamy. It is always difficult to judge the bowlers from Chinnaswamy's point of view. India's smallest ground and the flattest wicket is in Chinnaswamy, so bowlers will be happier and you might see a better performance from bowlers like Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini."
