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✪ The thrill of the last-ball six from Srikar Bharat and what’s special about it?
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Senior cricket writer & analyst
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Two outstanding cricketers who captained the two IPL teams failed to guide their teams to the title. One was sacked as the team captain while the other opted to step down as skipper. Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore could not take his team beyond the play-off stage and hence has relinquished his captaincy, while David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad, a team that did not manage to reach even the play-offs, was removed as captain mid-way through the tournament. There seems to be a common factor between these two incidents and a message for all captains as well.
Virat Kohli steps down as RCB captain. Photo: RCB Twitter
Virat Kohli decided to step down and announced that it was his last match as captain after Royal Challengers lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the eliminator on Monday (October 11, 2021). The closest Kohli had reached to winning the title was in 2016 when his team lost in the final to Hyderabad. This is a franchise that had placed a lot of faith in Kohli and had a strong team on paper, although they were not able to deliver consistently, and at the right time.
Captaincy and the skills needed as a captain are not something that every player can possess. Hence it’s not surprising that many great players have not also been outstanding captains. A franchise appoints a captain with two things in mind – first being that he will lead his team to win the title, and second being he would lead from the front through his performance too. In this edition, neither Warner nor Kohli have been consistent or the top performers.
However, Kohli, despite not being successful in winning the IPL title, has been an outstanding performer. He has the most runs as a captain scoring 4881 runs, most centuries (5) and most fifties (40). So the franchise had given weightage to his performance although he was unable to lift the title. Moreover, the franchise would also not have dared to remove the Indian captain until and unless Kohli himself decided to give up his captaincy.
Warner’s case is slightly different. He won the title for Hyderabad in 2016 beating Kohli and his team (RCB) in the final. He was the leading run scorer for the team and even won the Orange Cap for the highest run getter of the tournament in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
When David Warner lifted the IPL trophy in 2016. Photo: SRH Twitter
Kohli was able to stay on as Bangalore’s captain despite repeatedly not being able to guide his team to the title because IPL is an Indian tournament and he is Team India’s captain too. But in the case of Warner, being a foreign player in the IPL, he is unlikely to get the same consideration that Kohli was given. Warner’s remark that he was removed from captaincy without being given a reason can be termed disrespectful to a cricketer who served the team brilliantly over the years.
It is always useful for captains who lead franchise teams to be crystal clear about a few important aspects. Owners who invest money in the team will always want to win the title. The moment they do not achieve that, and if the team is consistently inconsistent, then the captain will have to step down. Additionally, if the captain’s poor form comes along with the team’s poor show, and if he is a foreign player, it would be best to opt out from leading the team rather than get sacked from captaincy or dropped from the playing eleven.
IPL is a hard fought tournament and these are hard realities of a highly competitive tournament.
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