Leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore in his final season as captain, Virat Kohli would have wanted to end this chapter of his cricketing career on a high. However, the premier batter's stint as RCB captain came to an end without a single Indian Premier League trophy on Monday evening, as his side were knocked-out of the IPL 2021 by Eoin Morgan's Kolkata Knight Riders in the Eliminator
Sharing his thoughts on Kohli's failure to lift an IPL trophy, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that despite not being able to win the tournament, Kohli has had an ever-lasting impact on the team and as a batsman, citing an example of his incredible season in 2016. Kohli in 2016 had emerged to be the leading run-scorer of the tournament, where he went on to amass 973 runs from 16 matches, which included 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries.
"Everybody wants to finish on a high. But these things never always happen according to your or fans’ wishes. Look at what happened to Sir Don Bradman. Just four runs were needed in his last innings and he gets out for a zero. Sachin Tendulkar would have wanted to finish with a hundred, he got 79 (Tendulkar scored 74) in Mumbai, his 200th Test match. 79 is not bad but somebody who is used to making hundreds would have wanted to get those extra 21 runs and then end his Test career there," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}"Everybody wants to finish on a high. But these things never always happen according to your or fans’ wishes. Look at what happened to Sir Don Bradman. Just four runs were needed in his last innings and he gets out for a zero. Sachin Tendulkar would have wanted to finish with a hundred, he got 79 (Tendulkar scored 74) in Mumbai, his 200th Test match. 79 is not bad but somebody who is used to making hundreds would have wanted to get those extra 21 runs and then end his Test career there," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
{{/usCountry}}"The script is not always written that way. Not everybody has this great fortune of going on a high. But can one ever dispute what he has done for RCB? He has done magnificently. There was one year when he got 973 runs, 27 runs short of 1000 runs. Nobody has done it, nobody looks like ever getting to 1000 runs."
Kohli led RCB in 140 matches, out of which the team won 66, lost 70, while the remaining four didn't deliver any results. He also led the Bangalore unit to a runners-up finish in the 2016 edition, where they lost the finals to Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight runs. Summing up his tenure as captain of RCB, Gavaskar added that Kohli has given the franchise a different brand recognition.
"He has given RCB that kind of profile, that brand recognition that very cricketers have given to their franchise," added the former India batsman.