IPL 2019: Stumbling Bangalore offers royal challenge to Virat Kohli's captaincy

Tuesday night in Jaipur was supposed to be a memorable one for Virat Kohli. Not a stranger to records, the cricketer was on his way to achieve another milestone of leading his team Royal Challengers Bangalore for 100th time.

Only Mahendra Singh Dhoni (162) and Gautam Gambhir (129) have led teams in more IPL games than Kohli.

However, it turned out to be yet another forgettable evening for the RCB captain as his team recorded their fourth successive defeat in the 12th edition of Indian Premier league. They lost to host Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

While Kohli has had an envious record as India captain in all formats of the game — in Tests under his captaincy the team retained Test Championship for the third time in a row two days back — his leadership in IPL is now a hot debate given his poor record with RCB.

Having taken over the reins from Daniel Vettori in 2012, Kohli has not really set the IPL stage on fire like he usually does with a bat in hand.

Leading the Red & Black team in 100 games, Kohli's men have lost 51 matches and won just 44 with no result in three. And it doesn't end there, in eight seasons under Kohli, RCB's best performance in IPL has been a second-place (losing 2016 final to Sunrisers Hyderabad) and a play-off berth (2015).

The cricketing world including fans, however, doesn't blame the captain rather his team for the failures and only sympathise with him for the string defeats.

However, there are some who question Kohli's leadership skills, like former Kolkata Knight Riders skipper and one of the most successful captains in the league with two IPL titles, Gautam Gambhir.

"I don't see him as a shrewd captain. I don't see him as a tactful captain (tactician). And he hasn't won the IPL. So ultimately, a captain is only as good as his record," Gambhir had said not many days ago.

The former India opener called him 'lucky' too to have retained the captaincy.

Kohli was quick to retort to Gambhir's questions. "Obviously, you want to win the IPL. I am doing what I am supposed to do. I don't care whether I am going to be judged on this (not winning IPL) or not," Kohli said later.

It would be foolish to call RCB a weak team. Rather, they are one of the best teams in the tournament but it has failed to live up to their potential.

With Kohli and the dangerous AB de Villiers in the side, any team can boast of a winning line-up. But it is the Indian talent that has not delivered leaving the rest to the two giants.

And then there are some areas where captain Kohli needs to take the blame too. Like, running out of patience with certain players — like releasing the talented KL Rahul and the ageing but still impactful Chris Gayle a year before that. And both are now flourishing in Kings XI Punjab.

Also, when RCB went for a short term investment in young Sarfaraz Khan by retaining him last year, they did not utilise him properly and he ended up playing in the shadow of the captain and ABD. He did not get any chance to play himself in and not facing enough deliveries. Like Rahul and Gayle, he too was brought by KXIP and is now playing responsibly.

Tactically too, Kohli has struggled to read the game like MS Dhoni or Rohit Sharma would. Take for instance the IPL 2019's first game in Chennai — Dhoni played three spinners on a rank turner, while Kohli chose to go in with two spinners — Yuzvendra Chahal and Moeen Ali in a game that turned out to be a low-scoring affair and went in favour of the defending champions.

It is clear that RCB is stumbling and its captain will be held responsible for it. However, as far as taking away the captaincy is concerned, it is too early to talk about it this season. Kohli might still script a turnaround in the fortunes of his team. One can question Kohli but at their own peril.