'Eight years is long time': Gautam Gambhir wants RCB to remove Virat Kohli as skipper
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RCB has not won a single IPL title in the last 13 years. Indian skipper Virat Kohli led the side for 8 years. Kohli has been criticised by many as he failed to deliver for the franchise.
Royal Challengers Bangalore ran out steam in the second half of the tournament and ended up losing five matches in a row, including the eliminator clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
RCB has not won a single IPL title in the last 13 years. Indian skipper Virat Kohli led the side for 8 years. Kohli has been criticised by many as he failed to deliver for the franchise.
Former India batsman and two-time IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir held Kohli accountable for the loss against SRH. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, he was asked if he would change the captaincy, to which Gambhir replied: "100%, because the problem is about accountability. Eight years into the tournament [without a trophy], eight years is a long time. Tell me any other captain…forget about captain, tell me any other player who would have got eight years and wouldn’t have won the title and would have still continued with it. So it has to be accountability. A captain needs to take accountability."
"It’s not only about one year, it’s not only about this. I have nothing against Virat Kohli but somewhere down the line, he needs to put his hand up and say, ‘yes, I am responsible. I am accountable’."
Gambhir went on to compare Kohli's situation with other captains in the past, who were removed as they failed to win the coveted cup. He said: "Eight years is a long, long time. Look at what happened to R Ashwin. Two years of captaincy [for the Kings XI Punjab], he couldn’t deliver and he was removed. We talk about MS Dhoni, we talk about Rohit Sharma, we talk about Virat Kohli...not at all. Dhoni has won three [IPL] titles, Rohit Sharma has won four titles, and that’s the reason they’ve captained for such a long time because they’ve delivered. I’m sure if Rohit Sharma wouldn’t have delivered for eight years, he would have been removed as well. There should not be different yardsticks for different people."
"The problem and the accountability starts from the top, not from the management nor the support staff, but from the leader. You’re the leader, you’re the captain. When you get the credit, you should take the criticism as well."