Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar shares his views on Virat Kohli’s failure to lift an IPL trophy with Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gavaskar believes despite not winning a title while leading the side, Kohli has had an ever-lasting impact on the team.
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign in the Indian Premier League 2021 ended when Kolkata Knight Riders handed them a four-wicket defeat in the eliminator. With this defeat, Virat Kohli’s time as the captain of RCB also came to a close, who announced to step down before the beginning of the second leg of the IPL 2021.
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Expressing his views on Kohli’s captaincy for RCB, Gavaskar said Kohli left a good impact on the team as a captain as well as a batsman.
“Everybody wants to finish on a high. But these things never always happen according to your or fans’ wishes. Look at what happened to Sir Don Bradman. Just four runs were needed in his last innings and he gets out for a zero. Sachin Tendulkar would have wanted to finish with a hundred, he got 79 (Tendulkar scored 74) in Mumbai, his 200th Test match. 79 is not bad but somebody who is used to making hundreds would have wanted to get those extra 21 runs and then end his Test career there,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“The script is not always written that way. Not everybody has this great fortune of going on a high. But can one ever dispute what he has done for RCB? He has done magnificently. There was one year when he got 973 runs, 27 runs short of 1000 runs. Nobody has done it, nobody looks like ever getting to 1000 runs.”
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Kohli led RCB in 140 matches, where he won 66 and lost 70 games. He led RCB to the finals of the IPL 2016 but fell short on the last hurdle when Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated them in the finals. Kohli scored a whopping 973 runs that year which featured 4 centuries in a single season.
Gavaskar believes Kohli has given RCB a different brand recognition.
“He has given RCB that kind of profile, that brand recognition that very cricketers have given to their franchise,” added the former India batsman.
