IPL 2018: RCB does not deserve a player like Virat Kohli

Isn't it high time for the rest of the players of the RCB team to look themselves in the mirror and reflect on how they've been collectively letting their skipper down?

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Virat Kohli
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Virat Kohli plays a shot. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Imagine what would’ve happened if Gautam Gambhir had not played that blinder innings worth 97 run on April 2, 2011. More importantly, what would’ve happened if MS Dhoni hadn’t held together the Indian innings with his unbeaten knock of 91 runs? Would India have been able to behold the World Cup after 28 years? The answer, in all likelihood, is no. A team cannot end up on the winning side if all the eleven players do not put their entire commitment, body, and soul, into the match. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side is a prime example of the above statement.

Very few sides in any sporting competition around the world hold the feat of reaching the finals of a tournament thrice in 10 years and falling painstakingly short every single time. RCB does. For any ardent fan of the team, the pain and frustration of seeing their favourite side repeating the same mistakes again and again, is unimaginable. The question isn’t about pondering on how the team went wrong in the fifth ball of the thirteenth over of some match because that has happened one time too many. The bigger question is this: Is the skipper Virat Kohli ultimately playing a thankless game? Is it high time for the rest of the players of the RCB team to look themselves in the mirror and reflect on how they’ve been collectively letting their skipper down? Till the answers to these questions are not found, there does not seem to be a glimmer of hope for the side.

Story of Kohli’s ascent in the RCB outfit

Kohli’s association with the Royal Challengers Bangalore is a fond story in itself. Having found a place in the side back in 2008, when he was still fresh from his U-19 days, Kohli has chosen to stick with RCB through thick and thin. Just as Lionel Messi has sworn to never sever ties with Barcelona, Kohli’s bond with the RCB seems to have withstood the test of time and failure, both.  If we walk down the memory lane, we’d find a chubby Kohli stepping out onto the field against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the very first match of the tournament, under the captaincy of the mighty Rahul Dravid. Fun fact, King Kohli came out to bat at the last position and was bowled out for 1 run by Ashok Dinda.

10 years since, Kohli has turned 29, is the skipper of the Indian Cricket team and oh yes, he captains the RCB side too! Having taken up the captaincy reins back in 2014, he’s currently the leading run-scorer in the history of the IPL, with 4619 runs in 153 matches. Although his stints for the side in 2008 and 2009 were forgettable, Kohli established himself as an instrumental cog in RCB’s machinery in 2010 when he slammed a quick-fire knock worth 58 runs off 35 balls against the Deccan Chargers, augmented by four boundaries and sixers apiece. From thereon, he’s never looked back.

He’s for the team, but the team isn’t for him

Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor. (Photo Source: AP Photo/Aman Sharma)

It was in 2014, that Kohli took over the reins of captaincy for the RCB. He played tirelessly in the following years, often being the lone warrior for his side, trying to hoist the entire team on his shoulders and drag the colossus of expectations and hopes of thousands over the line. While explosive batsmen like AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Chris Gayle and skilful bowlers like Yuzvendra Chahal and Tymal Mills have found places in the side over the years, the team has never found cohesion as such, with almost 90% of the matches depending on Kohli’s performance.

Since the inception of the glitzy tournament, the RCB side has made a grand appearance in every season of the IPL, claiming to finally have the right players and the right combinations to win the cup. And time and again, they’ve had to exit the tournament trophy-less. The only man who’s been an aberration to the erratic performances from the Bangalore side is Virat Kohli. Match after match, season after season, Kohli has toiled for his side, trying to propel RCB over the finish line. But the results just don’t seem to go his way.

Decoding RCB’s constant lack of success

Although RCB has reached the IPL finals thrice (2009 2011 and 2016) and were semi-finalists in 2010, it was the 2016 season of the IPL that had ignited a blazing fireball of hope inside every RCB fan’s heart. Probably, every one of them had been turning over the phrase “Ee Saala Cup Naamde (This year, the cup is ours)” over in their heads. Kohli was in sublime touch and scored 973 runs in the season, with four centuries to his name – a feat unparalleled in the history of the tournament. RCB reached the finals and in an anti-climax, ended up surrendering meekly into the hands of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). However, if we scrutinize the knocks that got RCB to the finals we’d find the charts being dominated by the skipper, with little or no contribution from the bowlers and middle-order batsmen and therein, lies the problem.

Although Kohli keeps urging his fans to not get judgemental after just 10 days into the 2018 edition of the tournament, it breaks our hearts when he’s given the Orange Cap for his splendid performances and we see him not finding it in his heart to be happy of his achievement because he could not make his team win. RCB’s recent defeat against the Mumbai Indians, especially, makes the case stronger against the rest of the side. Kohli kept on batting heroically to score 92 runs off 61 balls. All he needed was for someone to rotate the strike and stay there till the end with him. But that was not to be as the entire middle-order collapsed like a house of cards and the Kohli-led side lost by 46 runs.

A man as dedicated as Virat Kohli, who puts his blood, sweat and tears into every game he plays, who has the Herculean strength to shepherd his side in the field for 20 overs straight and then come in and bat for another 20 overs, who is more passionate about his team’s victory than his personal achievements, does not deserve to be without an IPL title after all that he’s done for RCB. With RCB’s performances in the IPL 2018 still at a redeemable stage, more intent is absolutely necessary to turn the tables.

Since it’s a long shot to think that Kohli will end his ties with the RCB, considering how loyal he is to the side and its fans, the onus is on top guns like Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers to switch on their destructive batting mode. The onus is on bowlers like Kulwant Khejroliya, Mohammad Siraj and Chris Woakes, on whom Kohli has invested faith enough to proclaim that people would be surprised with his bowlers this time around, to not let their skipper down anymore.

The onus is on middle-order batsmen like Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan and Corey Anderson to hit those crucial runs down the order and keep their captain company instead of getting dismissed for playing absurd shots. For ten long years, Virat Kohli has been going all out to bring the IPL trophy home. This time, the onus is on the entire RCB squad to make him proud and win it with him and for him!

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