Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said Virat Kohli would be disappointed that he was not able to match the high standards he had set for himself with the bat at IPL 2020 and it was one of the reasons why the Royal Challengers Bangalore were not able to progress beyond the Eliminator.
RCB were knocked out of the competition on Friday after they suffered a 6-wicket defeat to former champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi. The defeat was also their 5th on the trot as RCB’s form tapered off after a strong start during which they had won 7 out of their 1st 10 matches.
Despite a slow start, Virat Kohli managed 466 runs in 15 matches but he got them at a strike rate of 121.35. Kohli’s inability to get going in the middle-overs didn’t help RCB’s cause as they were among the teams with the lowest run rates in the middle-overs.
“Looking at the high standards that he sets for himself, maybe he would say he didn’t quite match that and that’s one of the reasons why RCB weren’t able to go through. Because when he scores those big runs along with AB de Villiers, they invariably have big scores,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports on Friday.
“If anything, their bowling has always been their weak point. Even now, in this particular team, they have got an Aaron Finch, who is a fine T20 player, young Devdutt Padikkal, who began well and then Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, then you have really got it made.”
“I think where they need to do a little bit of thinking is give Shivam Dube a proper role. Dube has gone down and Sundar has gone up and down. If he can be given a role, and told to go out there and thrash the ball, it might help him. He is confused now.”
“If they can get a solid player at No. 5, then it will ease the pressure of de Villiers and Virat.”
