Debate: Should trophy-less Royal Challengers Bangalore continue with Virat Kohli as captain?

Another Indian Premier League season that started promisingly for the Royal Challengers Bangalore ended in disappointment with the franchise crashing out of the tournament with five defeats on the trot.

Their supporters might argue that they still reached the playoffs and that is a lot better than some of the other teams in the league but there will be others who feel that perhaps it is time for a change in leadership at the franchise.

Not so much because of how RCB have played but simply because eight seasons as a skipper in the Indian Premier League demand a title. Kohli does have the added advantage of being the biggest brand in Indian cricket and that does get RCB some power in the marketing stakes but results on the field are what must matter to the owners.

Kohli seemed like he was going to be able to turn things around for the franchise in the 2015 and 2016 seasons but the team has gone steadily downhill after that (before the mini recovery this year) and the captain has to take some responsibility for that.

RCB have never won the title and since Kohli took over as captain eight years ago, have only qualified for the playoffs thrice. In the previous three seasons, RCB have finished in the bottom place twice.

Case A: Look beyond Kohli

Among the faction that believes RCB have to look beyond Kohli is former India cricketer and two-time IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir.

“Eight years into the tournament [without a trophy], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain…forget about captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability. A captain needs to take accountability,” Gambhir told ESPNCrinfinfo.

“Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy [for the Kings XI Punjab], he couldn’t deliver and he was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli...not at all. Dhoni has won three [IPL] titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that’s the reason they’ve captained for such a long time because they’ve delivered. I’m sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people,” he added.

Stick with Kohli

But RCB chief coach Katich and RCB’s director of cricket operations, Mike Hesson, think otherwise.

“From a leadership point of view, we are very fortunate to have him, he is highly professional and very well respected by the team,” Katich said about Kohli during a webinar.

“He is very invested in his group and spent a lot of time with the younger players, particularly Devdutt Padikkal. That’s the kind of sight a lot of people don’t see. We hung in the contest and fought right till the end and Virat can take a lot of credit for that.”

In IPL 2020, Kohli made 466 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of 121.35 and struggled to get going in the middle-overs. Katich tried to explain that as well.

“From a batting perspective, we did have consistent partnerships from Padikkal and (Aaron) Finch (in the first half) but then Virat came into the innings outside the powerpay in a lot of games and that was a challenge for him,” Katich said.

“But we all saw his class, particularly the game against Chennai (Super Kings), where he scored 90 odd in some 52 balls.”

So where do you stand?

1. Do RCB really have the option of looking beyond Kohli? He is the most powerful cricketer in the country and asking him to step down will come with its own set of complexities. Prime among them being the pressure that the new skipper will be under. If the new skipper won’t succeed, a lot of RCB fans might want Kohli back. Will the owners want to take that risk?

2. Kohli should step down on his own because his numbers are not good enough. A top batsman cannot have a strike-rate of 121.35 through the tournament. That is just not acceptable. So like Dinesh Karthik did at KKR, Kohli must accept that someone else can do a better job and step aside.

3. Forget about the five losses that ended the season for a bit. The RCB management and captain got a lot right this season. Instead of seeing it as eight seasons without a trophy, this is the first season for this management as a whole and they shouldn’t be judged for past failures. T20 franchise cricket is not exactly a captain’s game. Stick with Kohli, he’ll be desperate too.

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