“Not a single trophy in 8 years, why doesn’t he give up captaincy?”, Gambhir slams Virat Kohli
Mumbai : The IPL journey of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), captained by Virat Kohli, ended as it lost the last match against SRH. Kohli’s dream of winning the trophy was shattered once again as he lost the Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Friday. Virat Kohli took over as captain of RCB in 2013. Since then, under his captaincy, the team reached the final only once in 2016, but could not win the title.
Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir feels that Virat Kohli should be removed from the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gambhir said that 8 years is a long time and if the team fails to win a single title in this period then the captain should be accountable.
.@GautamGambhir says it is time for Bangalore to look beyond Virat Kohli as captain 🏏https://t.co/hbe8aQOUsg #T20Timeout pic.twitter.com/9ntEpG1uDY
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 7, 2020
Former captain Gautam Gambhir, who made Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a two-time champion, told Cricinfo in a live interview, “This is the chance, Kohli should come forward and take responsibility for this result.”
Asked if he would have been in charge of the franchise, would the captain have changed ..? Gambhir said, ‘100 percent, because the problem is about accountability. In tournaments, 8 years (without trophy), is a long time. Tell me another captain… Forget about the captain, tell me another player who has been 8 years in a team as a captain and has not won the title and still remains in the team… a captain needs to take accountability.
Gambhir said, ‘It is not only a year… and not only this year. I am not against Virat Kohli, but somewhere he needs to accept and he should say- ‘Yes, I am responsible. I am accountable.’
He said, “8 years is a long time. See, what happened to Ravichandran Ashwin. In two years of captaincy (for Kings XI Punjab) he could not deliver the result and was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, but we don’t talk about Virat Kohli… not at all. Dhoni has won 3 (IPL) titles, Rohit Sharma has won 4 titles, and that is why he captained for so long, because he gave the results to the team. I am sure if Rohit Sharma had not given anything for 8 years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different criteria for different people.”
Gambhir said, “The problem and accountability starts from the top… neither from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader… You are the leader, you are the captain. When you get credit, you should also be ready for criticism. In the current IPL, RCB won 7 in the first 10 matches, while lost five matches.”
