"Kohli was left alone" - Aakash Chopra on RCB's exit from IPL 2023
Aakash Chopra has attributed the Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) elimination from IPL 2023 to the lack of support for Virat Kohli during their innings.
Kohli scored an unbeaten 101 off 61 balls as RCB set the Gujarat Titans (GT) a 198-run target in the final league game of the tournament in Bengaluru on Sunday, May 21. His knock went in vain as Shubman Gill's unbeaten 104 off 52 balls helped the visitors chase down the target and deny the three-time finalists a playoff berth.
While reviewing the game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra pointed out that RCB's historical problem returned to haunt them, explaining:
"Kohli was left alone. This is Bangalore's age-old problem that no one was there with him. They invest in two or three people. Two out of the three (Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell) need to fire and when that doesn't happen this time collapses suddenly and that's what we found."
The former Indian opener highlighted that RCB not investing in Indian players, barring Kohli, has proved to be their stumbling block, elaborating:
"There is no other Indian player who has played 50 matches, that's surprising. One has scored 7100 runs and there is no other player to score 1000 runs. If you are not going to invest in your Indian talent, this team is not going to do well."
The Royal Challengers Bangalore were overreliant on Faf du Plessis (730 runs), Virat Kohli (639) and Glenn Maxwell (400) in the batting department in IPL 2023. Dinesh Karthik (140) and Mahipal Lomror (135) were their only other batters to aggregate more than 100 runs.
"KGF brought them this far" - Aakash Chopra says RCB have punched above their weight
![RCB's batting revolved around just three players. [P/C: iplt20.com]](https://statico.sportskeeda.com/editor/2023/05/592aa-16847323444305-1920.jpg?w=500)
Aakash Chopra feels the Royal Challengers Bangalore performed better than expected, considering their lack of batting depth, stating:
"I still feel KGF brought them this far. They have slightly punched above their weight with regards to their batting because if your batting stands on just three players, reaching this far is also difficult at times. Bowling was very decent."
The reputed commentator also questioned Du Plessis and Co. for playing Himanshu Sharma ahead of Karn Sharma in Sunday's crunch game, saying:
"When you came to this match, you made Karn Sharma sit out and called a debutant. I mean, right at the business end, if you lose this match you are gone, it was not understandable. Season of missed opportunities."
Himanshu, who hasn't even played a state game, was drafted into the side at the expense of the experienced Karn as a surprise factor. The move didn't yield the desired results as the youngster went wicketless and conceded 28 runs in his three-over spell.