Though Virat Kohli isn’t the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, their captain Rajat Patidar and head coach Andy Flower have paid rich compliments on the influence the former India captain brings to the franchise. As RCB successfully managed to defend the title, beating Gujarat Titans in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, Kohli again played an match-winning knock, scoring an unbeaten 75 off 42 deliveries in the chase as he tallied over 650 runs in the season.
Though he stepped aside as the captain ahead of the 2024 season, Kohli continues to be in the thick of action and continues to be the face of the franchise. Be it in the field or with the bat, his intensity has been hard to miss and at the same time, he has let Patidar run the show as captain without any interference. And Patidar said Kohli’s presence has allowed him to grow in his role as captain.
“Regarding Virat bhai, I think you know, as I said in many press conferences and interviews, that his presence makes a lot of difference,” Patidar said on Monday. “And for me, I think it’s a great learning. Whenever I’m around him on the field and off the field, I always notice him. I don’t speak much but I always notice him. But whenever I have some kind of doubts regarding leadership role or regarding taking any decision, I always go with Virat bhai. For me, it’s a great opportunity to learn from the best and the greats of cricket. So, yeah, I think their ideas, their inputs, their experience are definitely helping me a lot to grow in my new leadership role,” Patidar who has won two IPL titles as captain said.
Flower, who is a globetrotting T20 coach, and has been instrumental in RCB undergoing a massive turnaround in terms of culture and attaining results, said Kohli’s drive has been inspiring him. “You asked about Virat’s hunger and how that affects him. When I was in the dressing room last night after the game, I mentioned it actually. His hunger and drive, it’s genuinely inspiring. And even for older blokes like me, seeing someone as hungry and driven, as disciplined and as ambitious as he still is, it’s wonderful to witness. And we’re very lucky to have him in the dressing room. He sets certain standards, like standards of intensity in the field, for instance, that means that anyone falling below those is going to stand out like a sore thumb. So we don’t need coaches driving intensity on standards in the field, for instance, because he’s living it and doing it. And everyone else has to raise their games to get anywhere near it,” Flower said.
The former Zimbabwe captain, who also coached England to T20 World Cup title in 2010, said the standards that Kohli sets in the training have been helpful for others. “He works hard at his game, but you can see that he loves it as well. He loves batting. He loves hitting a ball. He loves the feeling of the ball meeting the middle of the bat. And I would imagine the craft and mastery that he feels when he’s got a bat in his hands. And again, those standards are easy for people in our training sessions to see. And certainly it just helps everyone head in the right direction,” Flower said.
