What’s the story?
Virat Kohli might not find much support from Australians, especially after the tense Border-Gavaskar Trophy recently, but one cricketer from Down Under who has sprung to his defence following his poor run of form is batsman Travis Head who backed his RCB skipper to bounce stronger than ever sooner rather than later.
Out of the reckoning of the knockout stages of the competition with just two wins from 13 matches, Kohli has been the one who borne much of the criticism for failing to inspire his side back into form, but Head feels that the 28-year-old has been in good spirits as the leader of the pack despite the side’s poor showing.
"He (Kohli) led from the front last year and he was unbelievable with the bat, but he plays with his heart on the line and really aggressively,” Head said. "It's just been this tournament he hasn't been able to get on a roll and get any momentum up. "He's fantastic around the group, I can't fault him at RCB."
In case you didn’t know....
While the RCB have endured a disastrous 2017 IPL campaign with just five points from 13 games, much of the criticism has been aimed at the team’s star-studded batting trio of Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, and Kohli, with the latter inviting special attention by virtue of being the skipper of the side.
Heading into the tournament on the back of a poor series against Australia, where he scored just 46 runs in five innings, Kohli has been unable to regain his form and that has coincided with RCB’s poor showing in the IPL as well.
Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar was one of the many pundits who hit out at Kohli for his poor run of form but Head believes it is unfair to single out Kohli for the team’s debacle.
The heart of the matter
While Kohli has endured a poor run with the bat, he is still RCB’s second highest run-getter with 250 runs from nine matches, only five behind Kedhar Jadhav who has played three matches more than his skipper. So it is only just that Head feels that the squad has to shoulder the blame, especially the overseas trio of Gayle, De Villiers, and Shane Watson.
With as many as four centuries in the 2016 IPL, it is only understandable that much was expected of Kohli and his star-studded side that made it to the showpiece match of the previous edition and Head is at loss of words to explain why the side performed so poorly this time around.
The absence of impact players like KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan has been a factor clearly and Head feels that Kohli has done well to maintain good spirit within the squad and feels it is more a case of bad timing than anything else.
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What’s next?
RCB’s final fixture of the 2017 IPL will be against Delhi Daredevils on Sunday and while both sides are out of contention for a spot in the Top four, Delhi, unlike their opposition, are a team on the up with four wins from their past five matches.
Kohli & co will certainly be hoping that they can at least sign off on a good note after all that they have gone through this season. Head will meanwhile head to England on Monday to join up with the rest of his Australian teammates for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.
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Author’s take
Finally some words of support for Kohli who has endured some tough times lately. All cricketers go through a lean patch and that is clearly the case with the Indian skipper as well.
What has hurt RCB the most is that all their star performers have endured a collective run-drought that has spelt doom for their campaign and the entire squad is responsible for that rather than any particular individual.
