New Delhi: After Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were knocked out of IPL 13 by Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets on Friday (November 6), former India opener Gautam Gambhir talked about Kohli’s captaincy after RCB’s loss to SRH and said that it is time for be held accountable for the results and this should lead to his removal from the captaincy.
Asked if Kohli should be removed from RCB’s captaincy, “100%, because the problem is about accountability. Eight years into the tournament [without a trophy], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain…forget about captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability. A captain needs to take accountability,” Gambhir was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo.
” It’s not only about one year, it’s not only about this. I have nothing against Virat Kohli but somewhere down the line, he needs to put his hand up and say, ‘yes, I am responsible. I am accountable’ he added.
Pointing out RCB’s lost their 5 games on the trot, he even went on saying that RCB did not deserve to qualify for the play-offs after four successive losses.
“You can keep saying ‘we qualified for the playoffs and we deserved to qualify for the playoffs’, absolutely not. RCB actually never deserved to qualify for the playoffs. If you see the last four or five games, and even that one Super Over against Mumbai Indians, they were very fortunate that Navdeep Saini bowled that over brilliantly. Otherwise they didn’t have a great season. From the batting point of view and the bowling.”
“Eight years is a long time. It’s not that Kohli isn’t experienced. He captains India, he captains whichever team he plays for, but you’ve got to give results, you’ve got to deliver. Sport is all about delivering. Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy he couldn’t deliver and he was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli…not at all. Dhoni has won three titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that’s the reason they’ve captained for such a long time because they’ve delivered. I’m sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people. The problem and the accountability starts from the top, not from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader. You’re the leader, you’re the captain. When you get the credit, you should take the criticism as well.”
