IPL 2018: The loneliness of being Virat Kohli

“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, for the strength of the wolf is the pack”

It may be 82 years since Rudyard Kipling left planet Earth and moved into the abodes of heaven, but sitting up there, he will have a wry smile on his face, wondering how his words resonate among the imperfect species who find a way to live amidst despair on a daily basis.

One such specimen on Earth who would doubt a part of the quote and existence of it in his life is Virat Kohli.

Opportunities in life don’t come often, but when they do, they are meant to be taken.

Kohli and his men arrived in Mumbai to take on a side low on confidence, with a lot of questions running around their minds over how they were going to lift a sinking ship and take it to safe waters.

And yet as they leave the Maximum City, it does seem like the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) campaign is headed towards maximum trouble, circa 2017.

In the centre of the crisis lies Kohli, arguably the best batsman today, but with no support to back his effort.

Right now as he boards his flight back to Bengaluru, he will find himself alone amidst a bunch of equally exceptional talented individuals around him, who have failed to live up to the billing thus far in the competition.

All he can do right now is try and find a way to get them firing, what he obviously can’t do is do their job.

AB de Villiers, one of the franchise's retained players has misfired in two big chases. Sarfaraz Khan, the third retained player has not got going at all.

Right now, Kohli finds himself lonely. He’s the highest run-getter in the competition thus far, but does not have the results to back up the stats.

Social media often comes up with the best analogies to describe situations.

One such description was how the present RCB batting unit might score 400 runs if they face the present RCB bowling attack.

#RCB would score 400 if they faced #RCB bowling. #IPL

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) April 13, 2015

A common factor that has persisted with RCB whether their season has gone well or not has been how the bowling has never complemented the batting at any point.

From the times of Jacques Kallis in the initial years to Yuzvendra Chahal now, the bleeding has only been on the rise and little has been done to stem the flow.

First as a player, now as captain Kohli can do little in this regard except give them the field they want and shuffle them accordingly in the hope of getting results.

In essence, to reiterate Kipling, Kohli right now finds no strength from his pack and remains the lone wolf, fighting his way through every obstacle that comes his way.

There is no doubting his chasing ability in limited-overs cricket, but even the greatest sometimes have their task cut as Kohli's has been in the previous two matches.

There has always been a wide-ranging debate in cricket about whether it is a sport where team effort leads to victories or it takes individual brilliance to fetch results.

In the sole win that they have got in the tournament so far, RCB were aided by Umesh Yadav’s excellent spell and an equally effective batting performance from de Villiers.

But as a team, they are yet to put in a complete performance which would terrorise the opposition, leaving them jarred.

The franchise seem to be heading in a similar direction to the one in 2016. Kohli mustered up every bit of his batting talent to take them to the final then.

Does he have as much willpower inside him to form the resurgence needed or is he merely fighting a lone battle on his own, hoping for a miracle to happen? Will for his sake as well the team’s, the pack rise up and support the wolf?

Only time will tell.