You just have to accept things and move on, says Virat Kohli on RCB's slump
As enigmatic as Virat Kohli has been since he was propelled to the top of the realms of any and every team that he played for, his humane side, or to be brutally honest, a helpless side hadn’t been exposed yet.
What this IPL season has done is that it has proved to us once again that even the mightiest of men are fallible and are mortal just like the rest of us. This was why Sachin Tendulkar’s 241* against Australia at the SCG was exceptional.
This would also be why we would look at the Champions Trophy not just as a title that India are defending, but also as the tournament where one of their prodigies would be expected to conjure up a Tendulkar-like reincarnation.
Kohli’s RCB have been battered and bruised this season, after their propulsion of Himalayan proportions last year, and it was hence proven that a miracle couldn’t be the same as serendipity.
“It’s for everyone to see how it has gone, and it certainly hurts the most to us players. We’ve certainly tried everything to turn things around for us but it just hasn’t happened. Sometimes in sports, these things happen. You just have to accept that and move forward,” Kohli said on the sidelines of an event in Bengaluru.
RCB this season: From riches to rags
And moving on has been the pill that a Kohli-led side has been made to swallow for the very first time with such a bitter taste.
For perspective, Kohli’s average this season has been 27.77 and his strike rate has been 120.77. If you think about these numbers in neutral terms, they would equal that of somebody like Ajinkya Rahane – amongst top order batsmen – and they aren’t exceptionally bad if not outright excellent.
However, you bring back what he did last year – 973 runs at 81.08 with 4 centuries, and you realize that being poor would probably be an understatement. When the expectations of an event are sky-high, mediocrity becomes akin to failures. Kohli hasn’t been a bad batsman this year. He has just been a bad Kohli.
“Actually, it makes us more excited about the challenges of the coming years and what we can achieve as a team. We’re looking at it as a positive opportunity to start fresh and think of the things we need to do and move forward as a team,” he says with a disappointment-laden face.
“Last year was great for us, this year has been the complete opposite, so we got to accept both sides of this wonderful game that we play and we surely are going to keep trying to do our best and come back stronger next year. That’s all that we can say about the kind of season that we’ve had.”
Morale of the team still high: Kohli
While the season is all but over for the Royal Challengers, the bigger picture still awaits. The Kolkata Knight Riders were the only team that had not made the playoffs in the first three seasons of the league. Thereafter, they won the title twice in three years.
Whether or not RCB would be able to follow their footsteps is a question to be asked, but more importantly, is the team ready for it or not should concern the management.
Answering how would he motivate himself and the team after the poor season, Kohli looked to be every bit of the captain that he has been trusted to be, both for India as well as RCB.
“Well, it is tough, I would honestly say that it is tough (to motivate the team). It is not easy to pick yourself up after the kind of results that we’ve had.
“But you have to draw a line in terms of asking the players to motivate themselves and take ownership of the team and at the same time pushing the team forward in whatever way you can and pushing forward towards the kinds of results you want.”
It hasn’t been just Kohli who has not been at his imperious best this season. That he has still racked up three fifties speaks in abundance about the definition of ‘lack of form’ that applies to him.
However, on days he has been on song or at least has had some symphony to his strokeplay, his teammates have been in no mood to support him.
“But it doesn’t always happen, and it’s difficult. That’s when you expect certain players who you believe are good enough to play at this level to step up and take ownership of the team.
“That’s all you can really do in situations like these when things are not going right because it’s not going right for everyone and not for just one or two players that you have to manage.”
All's well within the team
The age-old cliche of ‘whatever happens on the field stays on the field’ is way easier said than done. On-field performances have quite often translated into dressing room stories that have been cliches of their own.
"So as a team when you’re not going well, all you can do is maintain a bit of patience and calmness around the change room and not let issues fly around. That’s something that we’ve done really well, I think,” Kohli said, speaking about the morale of the team.
"Apart from the kind of results that we have had, we’ve had not issues with the team. The guys have understood the feelings inside the change room as everyone has gone through the same feeling, and we have embraced that.”
Just recently, Mohammad Amir seemed to be miffed at his teammates for letting the news of his retirement intentions public. Such incidents don’t seem to find a place in Kohli’s embroidery.
“We have tried to help each other out rather than pushing things around on individuals and that I think has been a hallmark for us in terms of bonding as a unit. It is very easy to get frustrated when you’re not doing well but I think we have embraced what’s happened and we have accepted it.
“We have even tried to laugh it off at times. There have been situations that have been so helpless that we’ve come back to change room laughing (chuckles) thinking that something like this can actually happen to a team. It can happen to one or two guys, but the whole team thinking and learning the same way, as I said, has been a great learning curve for all of us.”