File photo of Virat Kohli.
Former Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir ignited a furious debate among fans whether it’s right for Virat Kohli to continue as Royal Challengers Bangalore captain with no trophies to team’s name in eight years with him at the helm.
The team is yet to taste silverware success in its 13 years at the IPL and in the ongoing IPL 2020, the team couldn’t go beyond the Eliminator stage.
However, another former Indian batting star Virender Sehwag came out in Kohli’s defence saying that asking for his resignation won’t solve RCB’s problems while citing that the 32-year-old cricket icon has been yielding result as a leader at the international level with Team India.
“A captain is only as good as his team. When Virat Kohli captains India, he is able to deliver the results. He wins matches – ODIs, T20Is Tests. But when he captains RCB, his team is not able to perform,” he said on a cricbuzz show.
RCB performed well in patches this season with seven wins in their 14 games in the league stages. The team finished the tournament on a low with four consecutive losses including a six-wicket loss in the eliminator to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday.
Sehwag, however, felt that Kohli has built a strong team and the management should help him in finding the missing puzzles to form a winning combination.
“It is very important for the captain to have a good team. So, I believe the management should not try and think of changing their captain and rather think of how they can improve this team. Who all should be added to the team to make sure their performance improves?
“Every team has a settled batting order but RCB have never had that. It’s only ABD and Virat, who keep shuffling up and down the order. With Padikkal coming to the fore, I reckon RCB need to have one more opener and a good lower-order batsman. These five batsmen should be enough to win them matches,” Sehwag said.
He further remarked that the team needs to show more faith in their Indian bowlers if they want to be successful next year.
“The same way, they’d have to trust their Indian fast bowlers. Everyone gets taken to the cleaners. It’s not as if Rabada, Morris and others haven’t been taken for runs,” he said.
