Over the years, Royal Challengers Bangalore has been one of the greatest supporters of Virat Kohli. They saw his rise through the ranks and handed him the captaincy burden of the franchise. But, he hasn’t been that successful as he is as the batsman. He is failing to make things fall in place for the team. Meanwhile, we came up with an idea that What might happen If MS Dhoni leads Royal Challengers Bangalore?
RCB has a massive and enthusiastic fan base all over India especially in their home city of Bangalore. Their fans come up in big numbers in their matches and are quite vocal at that time. A sea of red can be seen in the stands at the time of their matches but unfortunately, they never crossed that final mark.
Combinations in the playing XI:
If you look at MS Dhoni’s CSK over the years, the former skipper of India has always gone into the game with a clear idea of his playing XI. He knows his bowlers and always keeps a couple of part-time options handy in his kitty. If you look at Virat Kohli’s RCB, he always went with the batting heavy, which turned out things to be on the wrong side.
Would Invest more on all-rounders rather than pinch-hitters:
If you dig in the history, we always came across Royal Challengers Bangalore investing more on their batsmen rather than buying pure all-rounders in their side. If MS Dhoni has been the captain of RCB, he would have asked the owners to buy the players, who can offer goods with the bat and ball.
Even this year, they went with Shimron Hetmyer rather than going for Sam Curran, who was in the auction. It was a bit surprising move from RCB, as they went for Hetmyer despite having the likes of AB de Villiers and the skipper himself in their kitty.
Better field placing and strategies:
With all due respect to Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni has a lot of knowledge on looking after the field placements. Dhoni being a wicketkeeper, he knows where to place the fielders precisely for the certain batsmen.
With RCB bowlers having enough experience, the addition of MS Dhoni’s mastermind would surely help the team. The negative for Virat Kohli is his fielding position, who fields in the deep, which never allows him to look after the field placements on the other half of the circle.
Picking players as per the conditions:
MS Dhoni is one of those master technicians, who always rely on the basics. The prime example would be the absence of Harbhajan Singh in the CSK’s 2nd game at Cheppauk. In the first game against RCB, Dhoni spotted the left-handers in the team, which made him open with Harbhajan. But in the game against Rajasthan, he went with all-together a new plan.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli likes to back his players rather than rotating them. Though it is a good thing to do, in a tournament like IPL, winning is more important than backing the players.
On a concluding note, there is no denying to the fact that Virat Kohli is a brilliant skipper in the International level but unfortunately, he is failing to make things fall in place in the Indian Premier League for Royal Challengers Bangalore.
IPL performance of RCB under Virat Kohli’s captaincy:
| Year | Performance | Best Batsman | Best Bowler | Winning Percentage | |
| 2012 | League Stage (5th) | Chris Gayle (733 runs) | R Vinay Kumar (19 wickets) | 50.00 | |
| 2013 | League Stage (5th) | Chris Gayle (708 runs) | R Vinay Kumar (23 wickets) | 56.25 | |
| 2014 | League Stage (7th) | AB De Villiers (395 runs) | Varun Aaron (16 wickets) | 35.70 | |
| 2015 | Playoffs (3rd) | AB De Villiers (513 runs) | Yuzvendra Chahal (23 wickets) | 50.00 | |
| 2016 | Runners-up | Virat Kohli (973 runs) | Yuzvendra Chahal (20 wickets) | 57.14 | |
| 2017 | League Stage (8th) | Virat Kohli (308 runs) | Pawan Negi (16 wickets) | 21.42 | |
| 2018 | League Stage (6th) | Virat Kohli (530 runs) | Umesh Yadav (20 wickets) | 42.85 |