Should AB de Villiers replace Virat Kohli as the captain of RCB?
Recently, rumours did rounds in the local newspapers of Karnataka that AB de Villers might replace Virat Kohli as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore in Indian Premier League 2019. Although it was just a rumour, it is an issue to be pondered upon.
Virat Kohli has led RCB in six seasons but has failed to provide them with a single title. Kohli fans might argue that RCB has been a really weak team over the years. Before the start of this year's IPL, Kohli was pretty satisfied with the balance of his side and was confident enough to lift the trophy. On the other hand, MS Dhoni's CSK was rated as Grandfather's team and experts ruled them out of the IPL contention. But eventually, CSK turned out to be the winners and RCB stood third last.
This explains a point that it’s not just the team which needs to be good, picking the right XI and handling the players well is also a major component. This is where the likes of ABD & MSD excel and Kohli lacks. We have observed many captaincy blunders made by Kohli, mentioned below are a few of them:-
Ineffective Mohammad Siraj was given an extended run in IPL 2018 over the in-form Navdeep Sain. Picking Corey Anderson over Grandhomme even though Grandhomme has been the first choice all-rounder for New Zealand. Making Watson play down the order for RCB in IPL 2016 & 2017.
As we all know that Kohli has always seemed a bit confused while making team selections, be it any format or level of the game. For instance, retaining Sarfaraz Khan and Pawan Negi over Chris Gayle and KL Rahul in IPL 2018. Some may say that it’s the mistake of franchise owners but the truth is that the captain has a pivotal role in team selection in auctions.
RCB has always had a pretty decent lot of players like Gayle, ABD, Kohli, Rahul, Starc, De Kock, Bazz, etc. When you have that many legends and still don't manage to win, then obviously there are some faults in the captaincy. Had RCB reached playoffs on a regular basis, it would have been a satisfactory achievement for Captain Kohli but the reality is that RCB has reached playoffs only in 2 out of 6 seasons under Virat’s leadership.
The fact that Kohli is a batsman of the highest skill when he is leading the side can't be denied. He rejoices the added responsibility on his shoulders. Captaincy may bring the best out of Virat, but the job of a great captain is to bring the best out of his team.
One may argue that ABD does not have a good captaincy record in T20Is either. So, will he be a good option? This is something that cannot be answered without giving him a shot in IPL because a new captain might bring fresh thought process into the team. And as they say, “you can't expect different results without doing different things.”
If we look at the other side of the coin, the decision of making ABD the captain might backfire if RCB franchise does not take the following points into consideration.
RCB needs to picture the time ABD will be associated with the team because a change in captaincy needs to be a long-term decision. It might cause a rift between the two legends and lead to an unpleasant atmosphere in the team but the two are more likely to understand the need of the hour and function with mutual respect for each other.
Additionally, RCB might lose their huge fan base due to this switch in captaincy role. ABD took retirement to get out of the spiral of overburdening and tiredness, but giving him captaincy would put him back in that situation.
In decisions like these, one cannot determine what is wrong or right, but everyone can have their opinion on what is better.
Keeping an eye on WC 2019, Virat might not play the whole IPL season and since ABD has retired from international cricket, he would be available for the whole season. So, making ABD as the captain could be a sensible choice.
When we think of RCB, a parallel image of Virat Kohli leading it comes into our mind, but the recent rumour of ABD captaining RCB in IPL 2019 made us think about the question that we have ignored till now - “Is it a high time to think beyond Virat Kohli as a captain of RCB??”