Gautam Gambhir hasn’t shied away from expressing his opinions about Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) of late. RCB’s exit in the IPL 2020 Eliminator forced Gautam Gambhir to question Virat Kohli’s captaincy skills. “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,” Gambhir had said.
He also compared Virat Kohli’s captaincy to Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, he stated that the Mumbai skipper should lead Team India in the shortest format of the game ‘without question’. He stated that Rohit ‘knows exactly how to win games’ and the change would unburden Virat Kohli as well. Moreover, Gambhir also criticised Kohli for Bangalore’s repeated failures. Aakash Chopra, in a Facebook video however questioned that if Rohit Sharma would be able to lead Bangalore to an IPL victory. Chopra remarked that just because Kohli’s team does not do well, it does not mean that it is the skipper’s fault. Aakash Chopra’s comments came after Gautam Gambhir said that Sharma should be made captain of the national team in the T20 format replacing Virat Kohli. In a video shared on his Facebook page, Aakash Chopra said, “Gautam Gambhir believes that it is the nation’s misfortune if Rohit Sharma is not made the Indian T20I captain because he is the most successful captain in the IPL.
“But I have a question that if Rohit was given the RCB team, which is there with Kohli, will he have won two, three or four out of the five titles MI have won? Rohit as a captain is outstanding, I love him to bits but can the Mumbai Indians’ success story be equated with India, that is my question. Just because Kohli’s team does not do well, does it mean that is Kohli’s fault?” Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians managed to defend their title this season. Mumbai defeated Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets in the final match. Rohit had a brilliant innings of 68 runs in the final match. Mumbai has won the IPL title five times so far.