An owner’s dilemma: Is Virat Kohli the right man to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore?

Tuesday night was the 100th Royal Challengers Bangalore match that Virat Kohli was in-charge of. It is a significant milestone because it showcases the association between the team and the player and also because such longevity is usually the domain of really successful captains.

Before Kohli, the only other individuals to have reached the milestone are Chennai Super Kings’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the now-retired Gautam Gambhir – both Indian Premier League champions on multiple occasions.

Dhoni has secured his position not just on his standing as India captain. Rather, it is his success as CSK skipper that has made him a permanent fixture in the spot. In 12 seasons, CSK have been in the final seven times, this despite being banned for two years.

Gambhir, on the other hand, helped Kolkata Knight Riders win two trophies but the moment the owners of the franchise felt his level was dropping, he was let go. So why shouldn’t RCB’s owners consider the same possibility given Kohli’s track record over the last few years?

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The loss against Rajasthan Royals on Tuesday night meant that RCB now sit at the bottom of the points table with four losses in four matches – the only team yet to win a match in the 2019 edition of the IPL.

It was a typically confused RCB performance. For the fourth time in as many matches, RCB trotted out a new opening pair. In the first match, Parthiv Patel and Kohli had opened the innings. Then, they went with Patel and Moeen Ali. Another change in the third game saw Shimron Hetmyer partner Patel. And in the fourth match, the wheel rotated back to Patel and Kohli.

When one considers how important the opening position is in T20 cricket, the game of musicals chairs showcases how little thought has been put into it by the RCB team management. CSK, as Dhoni had revealed, have already planned out scenarios in which each player (Harbhajan Singh for instance) will be playing and the role they are expected to perform. That clarity of thought is clearly missing in the RCB camp and it is hurting them.

Spinners K Gowtham, who opened the attack, and Shreyas Gopal were brilliant with the ball for RR and one would have thought that Kohli might adopt a similar approach given how much better the spinners were than the fast bowlers. Instead, he didn’t introduce his main spinner Yuzvendra Chahal into the attack till the seventh over – allowing Jos Buttler, who has shown a weakness against leg-spin, to settle in and go on the attack.

RR’s England star has now been dismissed seven times by them at an average of just 16 runs and 12 balls per dismissal. But for some reason, Kohli decided to attack Buttler with pace. It didn’t work as they conceded 55 runs in the Powerplay overs. Ali, the other regular spinner in the RCB squad, bowled just one over.

The lack of consistency that plagues the batting also makes its way to the bowling. The bowlers have been swapped around at the start and at the death too. Kohli and RCB are confused.

And it isn’t just this season either. In the last two seasons, they have finished eighth (2017) and sixth (2018) respectively and that is not a good return for a team that spends good money on building its squad.

CSK and Mumbai Indians can also partly attribute their success to their core group of players. In CSK’s case, Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo have been around for a long time.

“One of the benefits of maintaining the same side with little turnover is that you can start the season [a] little bit ahead of other teams, who have a big turnover of players. So we turned up with very much the same team that played the final [last year] apart from one or two [injured players]. If you are changing only one player, roughly again, it doesn’t have a major impact,” CSK coach Stephen Fleming said.

Fleming also spoke of the impact Dhoni has on the squad: “His calm presence and his influence over the team has been consistent through the years. It has been talked about a lot, but it has a big effect when the players turn up and know that he’s going to be consistent, rather than up and down depending on form or life.”

MI, too, have retained their core. After his move from Hyderabad, Rohit Sharma has settled into the leadership role well. And he has always been able to count on Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers.

Kohli, on the other hand, just hasn’t been able to build his side. Yes, the final decision on buying a player rests with the owners but surely the skipper would have some say in it. The core of RCB’s side is AB de Villiers, Chahal and Kohli himself. There are too many variables that come into the mix when it comes to the other players and that shows in the inconsistency.

The RCB owners have the unenviable task of dealing with a skipper who has success with the national team, who has success as an individual, who has been with the team right from the start but just hasn’t been able to produce the goods as skipper.

Kohli might have one eye on the World Cup which may be taking away from his focus but if that is indeed the case, then he is doing RCB and its fans a huge disservice. For RCB to turn things around, they need their skipper to be all in without worrying about workload management or anything else.

It is still early in the season and while Kohli’s presence makes RCB a marketing success, another poor result at the end of IPL 2019 might force the owners – if they truly desire success – to look in the direction of another leader.

Given the record, not even Kohli might argue against it.

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