The 13th season of IPL will be kicking off within a week in UAE. Everyone has been waiting for the extravaganza for very long. Finally, on 19th September, the opener between CSK and MI will commence IPL 2020. As we say, we will be heading into the 13th season of IPL. Well, RCB happens to be one of the few teams who hasn’t got its hands on the silverware – the IPL trophy – despite having a power-packed squad. Two-time IPL champions with KKR, Gautam Gambhir, spoke some of the reasons for RCB’s dry run in IPL. The southpaw highlights the most consequential difference between MS Dhoni and Kohli’s style of captaincy.
Gambhir highlights difference between Dhoni and Kohli’s captaincy style
“What Virat Kohli has said, when you are happy with your squad as a captain, you would have already planned which playing XI you want to play. If you are satisfied, then the calmness also comes along. Because there are times that you do not come to know your best XI in the entire tournament and that is why you make a lot of changes,” Gambhir spoke on Star Sports’ Cricket Connected show.
“I still feel that RCB look a little batting-heavy. But one thing that you will see a little different is that the bowlers will be happy because they will not have to play 7 matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.”
“The biggest difference between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni is that MS Dhoni persists with his players for 6-7 matches. If you see RCB’s trend, they make changes very quickly because they have a doubt that their playing XI does not have a proper balance.”
“So I would want to see from RCB that even if the start is not good, they should persist with their playing XI and give them 6-7 matches. Because then only the players will give you performances and not if you give one or two matches. So if Virat Kohli has a calmness in his mind that this is the most balanced squad, the important thing will be how they perform and how much he persists with these players,” said Gambhir. Highlighting the difference between Dhoni and Kohli’s captaincy styles, Gambhir wants Kohli to show consistency with playing XIs.
RCB will kick-off their IPL 2020 campaign on 21st September against Sunrisers Hyderabad.