Former England captain Michael Vaughan feels the legacy of Virat Kohli as captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore would be remembered as one where he could not win a single IPL trophy with the franchise.
Kohli’s run as captain of RCB came to an end on Monday as his team lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets and was knocked out of IPL 2021. While Vaughan acknowledged all that Kohli has achieved as a Test skipper, the former batsman remained skeptical of his captaincy in IPL.
“In terms of what Virat is doing with the Test team and Test match cricket, developing the Indian team, he is terrific. You’d have to say and be honest, that in one-day cricket and T20 for the national side and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, he has fallen a long way short,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
“The talent and the squad that he has to work with is right up there with the best. The RCB team over the years is very top heavy with the batting. This year, with the quality of Maxwell and Harshal Patel and Chahal, they had the bowling to match the batting, and yet they have fallen short.”
Kohli was appointed RCB’s full-time captain in 2013 and has led the team in 140 matches, winning 66 of those. Under him, RCB reached the final in 2016, while twice finishing with the wooden spoon in 2017 and 2019. The last two seasons have been better with RCB reaching the Playoffs in IPL 2020 and 2021. Having said that, Vaughan pointed out that Kohli’s IPL captaincy left behind a lot to be desired.
“His legacy as captain in IPL cricket would be one that didn’t win. That’s what it’s about – high-level sport is about getting over the line, winning trophies, particularly when you’re at the standard of what Virat Kohli is at. I’m certainly not saying that he is, but he will see himself as a failure in IPL captaincy – because he is such a driven player and person – since he’s not got that trophy in his hands,” said the former England captain.
