In the Indian Premier League (IPL), stars have chosen their fronts in the franchise-owned clubs. MS Dhoni has been associated with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) since its inception. Virat Kohli has been retained since he was first bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2008. And now Rohit Sharma for Mumbai Indians (MI).
However, Virat has been largely unsuccessful in the IPL as a captain since taking over in 2011. RCB generally are placed at the bottom half of the table and are still trophyless, even after featuring in all twelve editions.
Recently, cricketer-turned-broadcaster, Aakash Chopra, pointed out a few glaring mistakes which the Bengaluru-based franchise made in the last decade.
“He [Kohli] is surely not a successful IPL captain. The team has not done well, it is actually a fact. And it is not one or two years, but many seasons. There are manifold reasons for that. First thing is that they don’t pick the correct team. If you see their squad’s strength, you can observe glaring mistakes. You can punch holes in them,” Chopra answered to one of the queries made by fans on his Youtube Channel.
Also, RCB’s strategy of going all-star at the top has made them compromise with other departments during auctions. Often, it led to a frail middle order, and lack of quality fast bowlers.
“There are no fast bowlers, who will bowl at the death, who will bat at No.5 and No.6. They have never addressed these problems. It is a top-heavy batting team, always a thin bowling line-up, the same Yuzi Chahal, just the same fast bowler, that’s about it. If you don’t pick the team properly, don’t expect miracles from a captain,” Chopra seconded.
Further, Chopra cited out the lack of communication between Virat and the management. “Second reason is that when the Indian team captain is the skipper of your franchise, you don’t stretch his bandwidth beyond a point. This is with regards to once again the squad selection. The other people need to do a very good job at the time of squad selection,” he added.
“I am sure MS Dhoni would have given the CSK management a list of 3-4 players to be picked and left the rest to the support staff, when he was the Indian captain. It is almost impossible for you to sit in the auction and spoon feed the management to pick a particular team. You have to support him, I don’t think Kohli has had that kind of support from his support staff,” Chopra concluded.
