Mike Hesson puts faith in Virat Kohli to lead RCB in IPL 2020

Former Head Coach of the IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab and recently appointed Director of cricket operations of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Mike Hesson, in a media interaction yesterday, stated that there were hardly any doubts about the leadership qualities of Indian Captain Virat Kohli and that he would be the best man to lead them in IPL 2020.

"There has been no question mark over Virat's captaincy during last couple of weeks (of discussions)," Hesson said.

Question marks crept in after RCB finished bottom of the table twice in the last three years under the captaincy of Virat Kohli despite having a formidable batting line-up that included superstars like AB de Villiers, Shane Watson and Chris Gayle. An unbalanced bowling group was cited as a major reason for RCB’s debacle.

New RCB coach Simon Katich stated that a lot of positives can be derived from the fact that AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli were proven performers and superstars.

“They (Kohli and ABD) are superstars. They have earned the right. Both of them are proven performers. That's a positive because you know you expect a strong performance from guys like that and they have done that for number of years in these conditions," Katich said.

RCB finished best under captain Virat Kohli in IPL 2016, when they stood second in the table, two points behind Gujarat Lions. Although RCB has struggled to find a regular place in the top half of the table, Kohli’s individual performances seemed to have gone higher. He overtook Suresh Raina as the highest run-getter in IPL cricket with 5412 runs in 177 matches, scoring five hundreds. He also stands second in the list of most 50 plus scores, 41, only to David Warner’s 48. After taking up the captaincy from New Zealand spin-great Daniel Vettori, Virat has led the side on 110 occasions, only behind MS Dhoni (174) and Gautam Gambhir (129).

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As a player, Kohli is second to none but what he has been unable to do is bring out a similar response from the rest of his teammates. Head coach of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2019, Mike Hesson will be eager to make a mark with Kohli as his captain and win RCB their maiden IPL title, keeping in mind the future coaching job of Indian Cricket Team, where he narrowly lost to Ravi Shastri a few months back.

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