IPL 10: So far Kohli has done next to nothing, says Ricky Ponting

The Royal Challengers Bangalore have had a dismal run in the Indian Premier League this season. They languish at the bottom of the points table at the moment. The players and the fans are busy trying to decipher what went wrong for them this season. Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has also joined the list of people trying to dissect RCB’s poor outing this season.

Among the two major reasons for their lackluster show this season, Ricky Ponting pointed out that KL Rahul’s injury and the failure of big guns has cost RCB dearly. As per the quotes in cricket.com.au, Ponting noted that KL Rahul had been a phenomenal player for them in the previous edition of the tournament when the team finished as the finalists. Also, coming into this season, Rahul’s form was supreme.

“KL Rahul is a massive loss for them. He had a terrific back-end to last season. He did some amazing things last year so him not being at the top has been a big loss. He and Virat were a pretty formidable opening pair last year. You couldn’t argue with what they did last year and they’ve played a bit of cricket with each other in the Indian Test team for the few months leading in to the IPL,” quoted Ricky Ponting.

Speaking further, he remarked that the big names of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers had a cumulative failure which did no good to their form in the season. Also, Shane Watson failed to deliver the goods for them. In the 2016 edition, Virat Kohli had been in scintillating form with 973 runs to his name as he led the team to the finals. In comparison, this season was far from being anywhere close to it.

“Their big name players just aren’t standing up like they did last year. They got on an amazing roll at the back end of last year’s tournament when Kohli was playing out of his skin, de Villiers was playing well, Gayle was chipping in and Watson was doing a good job with bat and ball,” Ponting noted.

“But so far Kohli has done next to nothing, there’s been flashes in the pan from Gayle and AB de Villiers, but the consistency just hasn’t been there,” Ricky Ponting conceded further.