New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) They have flattered to deceive time and again, but Royal Challengers Bangalore has been one of the most followed teams in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With Virat Kohli as captain and players like AB de Villiers in its ranks, RCB has managed to be a crowd favourite despite performances not really going their way.
But the humiliating loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday – by 118 runs – has seen the fans finally lose their calm. They took to social media to make their displeasure known as RCB is yet to win a game in the 12th edition of the cash-rich league.
Naveen Shetti, one of the fans, wrote on Twitter: “Someone please sack @imVkohli from RCB. This shameless captain doesn’t believe in his team, he needs only personal publicity. The result of which we are seeing today defeat after defeat. @imVkohli have some shame man and hear from outsider @GautamGambhir.a
Rakshit Anil Kumar echoed the sentiments and said: “I wonder how did RCB cross 100? I was expecting a 40-50 all out. Sack @imVkohli captaincy! Every RCBian is ridiculed for the 3d year continuously since 2017. Worst team selection absolute no brainer captaincy. Stop talking abt bowlers, where are the batters?”
Interestingly, it was former Kolkata and Delhi skipper Gautam Gambhir who had first started this debate on Kohli’s captaincy and had said that the India skipper was lucky to still be at the helm at RCB.
“I don’t see him (Kohli) as a shrewd captain or a tactful captain. And he hasn’t won the IPL. So ultimately a captain is only as good as his record till the time you don’t win the IPL,” Gambhir had said.
“He has been part of RCB and captaining RCB for the last seven to eight years and he has been very lucky and should rather thank the franchise that they stuck to him because not many captains have got such a long run where they haven’t won a tournament.”
There were quite a few memes as well as the fans seem to have had enough of RCB failing to rise to the challenges of winning the IPL.