Gulf News experts, RCB fan ponder if off-form Virat Kohli needs to take a break
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NewsTranscript
00:00SRH always had a strong bowling attack. Earlier they were reliant on spin.
00:14Hello. Wishing you all a very good evening and welcome to another episode of Straight Bad with
00:22Mr. Cricket TV and Gulf News. Unfortunately, we don't have Mr. Anish Sargent with us today.
00:29The panelists with me are A.K. Satish, Sports Editor of Gulf News and Sanjay Makam, a devout
00:37fan of RCB who's obviously not a happy man today. Now, we all know what transpired and how the
00:46match finished a good one hour before that and that's why we have logged in early today.
00:54I think for a change, since Anish Bhai is not there, I will start with Sanjay and give him
01:00the opportunity to let out some steam about what went wrong. I admit that second over of
01:09Jansen was a deadly one but there should be some resistance somewhere down the order. I mean,
01:16that's what shows the team's character. What do you have to say, Sanjay?
01:20See, whatever Shahbaz played or DK went for a duck, I'm not at all
01:27angry on DK because not every time you depend on someone like DK or Shahbaz Ahmed. They have
01:32been doing it for us for all the six matches and for the seventh match also, you expect them to do,
01:36that's bad. And for the seventh time, you have top order collapsing like anything. No contributions
01:42from Radkoli, no contributions from Anuj Rawat. Anuj Rawat is like a choice. We don't have any
01:48choice. We have to open with him because we don't have an alternate opener. See, the one thing I
01:53would like to tell is Faf. The ball which went for Faf, he was unplayable. He didn't predict the
01:58ball would come. Even he himself was shocked that he was bowled. We saw him looking back and
02:03checking the ball low and bowled. But Radkoli, in spite of knowing he's having a second slip
02:08in the form of Markram, still playing the drive shot for the outswing ball. When will he stop
02:12playing the outswing ball? I'm damn not understanding it. That one weakness, I don't
02:18know why can't he follow Sachin. That 241, where he didn't leave his weakness and he just left the
02:24drive and he played only sensible long. I want this Radkoli to bounce back. Today is not only
02:31the like, it's actually if you see in the practical side, it's just three losses for
02:35the side and we are healthy with 10 points. But when you see, it's a 10-team match and it's four
02:42who's qualifying. NRR plays a huge role and our NRR has hit so badly from positive two to we have
02:47slipped to negative four. That's the way what we did today. Today, it's actually disappointment.
02:55That's the most important takeaway. In an entire season of IPL, I've seen this kind of things
03:02happen on one or two evenings. In fact, at one point of time, I was just wondering that whether
03:08it was a very unhappy coincidence, you will be aware of that.
03:122017, same day, they fell for on a rainy evening at the Eden Gardens, they fell for 14.
03:2123rd April is not our day. 2013, Gale smashed 175, same day. And 2017,
03:29we have lowest score 49 and 2022, again, we have 68. But this actually tells
03:36the players the importance of Virat Kohli in the team.
03:39So actually, me being a dad Virat Kohli fan, not only RCBN, but being a dad, I would like
03:45I would like him to get dropped from the team. He should be benched for another two,
03:49three matches, get some alternative because we have pretty good batsmen in the form of
03:54Rajat Patil and Mahipal Lomro, who should get a chance. They're young talents, they have to prove
03:58themselves. So I would like, it's hard to tell, but I want to see Kohli be dropped for some matches.
04:03I'll stop there Sanjay for a while. Yes, I think what you're saying is, you know,
04:12not only an emotional choice. And at some point of time, when you see a batsman like him,
04:19the befuddled expression that you know, he doesn't have the answer as to what is going wrong,
04:24then taking a break and taking a look from the outsider's point of view is the only solution.
04:29I'll come to Satish. Before we go to Kohli, I think to give the credit where it's due,
04:35we should talk a bit about the, you know, the sunrise, the Orange Army pace attack. Now,
04:42what they have done is with this, in this five wins, there have been three big chases where I
04:48think they've won by eight wickets, seven wickets like that. And now the pacemen, they've laid down
04:53a marker that, you know, here we have the best pace attack, the most best varied pace attack
05:00of the 10 teams. And you know, when if we send somebody in, then that's going to be a kind of
05:06psychological ploy against the rivals. Satish, how do you analyze the way
05:12SRH has galvanized over the last five games?
05:16Gautam, SRH always had a strong bowling attack. Earlier, they were reliant on spin
05:24with Rashid Khan and co. But of course, the core bowlers were there, like Bhuvneshwar,
05:30Natarajan was there. Of course, Khalil was there at that point of time. But this year,
05:35what has happened is, Natarajan is fully fit. Bhuvneshwar is okay. He's not in the best of the
05:43form. Probably he's the only weak link, you would say. But Umraan Malik coming good,
05:49he showed a lot of potential last year. But Umraan Malik coming good this year and showing
05:54what he could do, along with the two international paces, I think that has made them the team again,
06:03to beat basically. The one thing which I see with them is, it's going to be extremely difficult for
06:10any team to even score 150-160 on a good wicket where there is some assistance to the bowlers.
06:19I'm not even talking about a good assistance. Even a little assistance also could make it
06:24extremely difficult. And they are on a high. So it's going to be even more difficult for any other
06:29team. And I would like to see, at this point of time, I would like to see how the SRH and
06:37Rajasthan Royals, especially the butler, the battle is going to go. So
06:41I'm quite keen on looking at that at this point of time.
06:46Right. I'll just speak your brain.
06:49And again, I would be not doing justice. Sorry, to interrupt. If we don't talk about Kane,
06:56Kane Williamson. He has done it in the past. He has done with New Zealand, he has done with many
07:01teams. And what he has done this year to Sunrisers is remarkable, because none of us gave
07:06them even 5% chance. We thought maybe Sunrisers would be at the bottom of the table. But he saw
07:13the potential in Abhishek Sharma. He saw the potential in Omran Malik. And he backed them
07:18just the way he did to his New Zealand players. And he's probably picked the same team. I think
07:24the last four or five matches, he's picked the same team. And there has not been any change.
07:28And he's back to his players. So hats off to Kane again, the wonderful captaincy.
07:36I will just take a cue and go back to the earlier match there with you. You know,
07:41I see a common thread. Like if you look at the SRH batting lineup, and if you also look at
07:46Gujarat titles batting lineup, I mean, what was being said initially was that, you know,
07:51these teams have stronger bowling lineups. But you know, batting looks a bit thin when you compare
07:56them with, say, for example, RCB, or, in fact, Lucknow Supergiants. But, you know, that giving
08:05the specific roles for each guys and backing them, that seems to be playing its part. I mean,
08:11for example, David Millett didn't get much today. But after years of, you know, kind of being there,
08:18sometimes in Punjab Kings, sometimes in some other team, he's got a role to play. And that
08:2380-odd innings that changed, I think, against KKR.
08:2694.
08:2694, not out against Chennai.
08:30Chennai, right. Chennai, where, yeah, where there was no hope. So it was, you know,
08:34such a calculated assault. Same with, you know, possibly Riddhiman Saha. I mean, the way he was
08:40keeping today, I could see Saha of yore. And he was very useful with the bat also. The same policy
08:46is what, you know, Sunrisers, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, I mean, on paper, we kept talking
08:53in the show that, you know, whom do they have, apart from Puran, but it is only Puran who has
08:59kind of underachieved so far. But I will come to you before I go back to Sanjay again, because
09:05I know he's an angry man today. Virat Kohli, you know, this is all that I put in your quote,
09:15and how do you analyse what's happening? Or what is the way out? Is taking a break the way out?
09:23No, there is no other option.
09:25You know, any batsman for that matter, whether it be Sachin Chaturvedi or whether it be Virat
09:29Kohli or for that matter, even Steve Smith, Joe Roode, any batsman, you cannot take a break and
09:36come back and start all over again. I think you have to go through the grind. And the one thing
09:41which I would also probably agree to what Sanjay is saying, but again, not today, maybe.
09:48You need to be more cautious. And I think if you remember, when he was given that out in 48,
09:55which was actually a very debatable decision, he was quite angry with that, because
10:01that was a game he was getting his touch back. That confidence he was coming in, 50, maybe another
10:0710, 15 runs, 60, 70, would have given him much more confidence. But that was not to be. That's
10:12why he was quite angry that day. But Gautam, there is no two ways about it. He has to go through the
10:17grind. Maybe at best, instead of thinking that I am Virat Kohli and playing the shot early on,
10:23he should play like any normal cricketer, which they will not be able to do. I am telling you,
10:28why these players cannot think differently is, it comes naturally to them. They are born with this.
10:34So, that's the reason why they are the world beaters. So, it's very difficult for them to
10:38adapt something which a common man, maybe like Cheteshwar Pujara or somebody else would do,
10:44because they all come through the very hard grind. But Kohli, for him, it comes naturally. So,
10:52he wouldn't be able to do that. But again, he should think, he should probably change his
10:57approach until he gets 15, 20 runs, 30 runs maybe, and then he can play his shots. But sitting out
11:06is not going to help in any way. That's my viewpoint.
11:11Right. I'll come to Sanjay. Sanjay, the thing is, if this trend continues,
11:17that the worrying part here is, on the face of it, yes, it's just a loss. But it's a long
11:23tournament. They're still on 10 points. They have just slipped to fourth. And as I keep saying,
11:30we keep seeing this kind of free games, at least three, four games in a season. But yes,
11:36the run rate has taken a beating there, which is the valid point. And gradually, there seems to be
11:41this tendency or the trend to over-depend on Faf. Now, Faf, during his stay in Chennai,
11:51he had a Shane Watson with him. He had a Rituraj Gaikwad with him last year,
11:57who served the team so well, 600-plus runs. But every innings, you cannot expect him to
12:03bat deep and kind of pull the team out of the woods. So, whom do you have as a
12:09replacement in mind for Anuj Rawat? I mean, I think that's also another need of the hour.
12:15Yes, but if, as Satish sir told, if that game of 48, if Virat Kohli somehow had found his form
12:24back in that 48-car match, scoring somewhere around 54-60 runs, that if Virat Kohli was
12:30informed, I would perfectly tell open with Virat Kohli because we know how such aggressive open
12:33Virat Kohli was in the years 16, 17 and 18. He slipped to one down back in 1920 and occasionally
12:39he started opening. So, considering he only not being informed, I just can't name Faf to
12:46go with Virat Kohli because as you told, one more disadvantage is Faf here is captain for
12:52us. In CSK, it was Dhoni who was captain and Faf, he was playing a pure role as a batsman,
12:57opening batsman, just with the flow, Rituraj Gaikwad was giving him some support at the end,
13:02beat Shane Watson, scoring good partnerships. Here, he's a captain, additional pressure,
13:07and he has to take the team. When Anuj is not performing, he just can't blame Anuj like why
13:11are you not going for shots? Why are you just wasting the balls? Instead, he takes time to
13:17motivate. That time of motivation, it builds the pressure on him because it's the score what you
13:20want in the par play. In the 6 overs, if someone like Anuj is hitting the balls, pressure builds
13:25on Faf. No, I have to go for a 4. I have to go for a 6 now. So, I think I can get my team par 40
13:31or par 50 in the par play. So, considering all that in mind, somewhere, even any sort of said
13:36batsman might get distracted for some ball over there. But for today, what Faf played, it was
13:42literally unplayable, I would tell because it was a clean in-swinger. Faf, the first ball he played,
13:46it was an out-swinger. All of a sudden, you get an in-swing ball. He couldn't even defend the ball.
13:50So, as far as now, I think there is no such opener for us other than Anuj.
13:57No, but it won't be a bad idea. Taking a cue from you, it won't be a bad idea to allow Virat
14:03to go and go start playing your shots because for 6 overs, there is field restrictions.
14:09You play your shots. Sometimes, even your edges fly over the wicket-keeper. It can go over the
14:14infield. It won't be a bad idea for Virat to come in and open, actually, to be honest.
14:18To shut us out of a bad form.
14:23Another thought to both Satish and Sanjay. I mean, is there any merit in trying to get up
14:30DK a little up the order? I mean, instead of, you know, that magic.
14:33At least, he is settled in that place. So, at least, one position is secured.
14:39Let's not tamper with it. I would say.
14:44Apart from today's match, we lost 2 matches and we won 5 matches. Out of the
14:486 matches, you take 4 wins and out of the 7 matches, you take 5 wins. 8 matches were
14:54totally we played, yeah. I mean, 8 matches, yes. 5 wins and 3 losses. Out of the 7 matches,
14:59DK has performed in the same position. He is having a striker around 2-0-9, which is good.
15:06He is having 15 sixes and he is one among the contenders for the orange cap. He is not in the
15:09top 5. He is somewhere in the top 12 or top 13. But his average is quite high. I think 2-3
15:14not out, he has added. So, I think his average is quite high. Only dismissals against CSK and
15:20today. Out of 8 matches, DK has been dismissed only twice.
15:24It will be interesting to see if DK can eventually make a case for the T20 World Cup,
15:30but we'll come to that later. I'll just quickly go to Satish before we go over to our thoughts
15:36on tomorrow's game. The KKR-Gujarat game. Now, when the KKR bowlers like Saudi was back and when
15:43they managed to restrict Gujarat for 156, I thought that KKR can, maybe it could be their day
15:51of bouncing back after three defeats. But what happened was, again, they experimented too much
15:59with this team and the batting lineup. Suddenly, you have a completely untested opening lineup in
16:05Sam Billings. Sam has opened, but this was the first time he was doing so. And Sunil Narine,
16:11left-right combination. Fine. Now, what was the reason? And now you've got, obviously,
16:18with Venkatesh Iyer, you see a logic. He has been put to number six. That's the place where he
16:23succeeded last time. Now, this kind of, at the slightest hint of trouble, any franchisee who
16:30starts tinkering with the opening combination or the team playing 11, it doesn't finally yield
16:37results. Don't you think so? The sad part is, Gautam, the KKR had a problem of openers right
16:44from the start. That was one place where they were not settled at all. Of course, Shreyas Iyer
16:49could come and get some runs. The others were there. Rasal was there. Others were able to get
16:55some runs, but openers were completely not able to get, even when Venkatesh Iyer was as an opener,
17:00he was not able to perform. I think it is a worth trying effort because I think this is
17:07one thing I would say, this is probably the best lineup I would say they have finally come across.
17:11I think they should stick to it, which should yield them in good results. But what I didn't
17:16find it is, after seeing the wicket in the last, once the ball was old and when the last 10 overs,
17:24how Gujarat was not able to time their shots with the slower ones and the ball sticking and
17:30stopping and coming to the bat, I think KKR batters should have played more of a different
17:35game, like rotating the strikes and a more cautious approach than trying to play the same
17:42shots. Either you defend or you try to hit a spin. You can't do that. You have to try to get
17:47the singles. You have to try to play the traditional one-day game kind of run scoring where you don't
17:57make the asking rate go quite higher when you chase. So it was purely because of the wicket,
18:04I would say the Gujarat bowlers bowled at the right areas and they were able to get the
18:09assistance from the wicket. Other than that, I don't see much of a problem. Yes,
18:15I was quite disappointed with Shreyas Iyer as a captain. I had a lot of hopes with him. But it
18:22seems that even the slightest hint, for example, when Venkatesh Iyer stepped onto the ropes after
18:30jumping for a catch, he was showing frustration last year, last match again against Rajasthan
18:38Royals when they were actually going good. He shouted at Venkatesh Iyer and the next ball,
18:43he was outstumped. And then the subsequent, the same over, he was also out because he lost his
18:48goal and which ended in a hat-trick for Chahal. I think as a captain, he needs to be a bit more
18:54mature and he needs to think better. But yes, of course, if you look at it, a captain performing,
19:01as I think the last two years, it was not happening because DK was a failure as a captain
19:06who couldn't perform. Last year also, Owen Morgan, as a captain, he couldn't perform.
19:10That way, Shreyas Iyer is able to do that. But he could do better than what he has done.
19:17Okay, now tomorrow, despite it being a Sunday, it's not a single game. We have got
19:24Mumbai Indians versus Lucknow Supergiants. So Sanjay, do you think that Mumbai can finally
19:31log that two points or it is still a far stretch of imagination? What do you say?
19:40I was literally sad after seeing Mumbai losing against CSK because Mumbai almost pulled off the victory.
19:46Until there was a special innings by MS Bhatt in the 2019
19:52wipes back again, smashing 18 runs. Actually, to just give a glimpse of the previous game,
19:58Bumrah had it under the control, 19th over. He just gave some seven or eight runs and he gave
20:03the ball to Unadkat and Unadkat couldn't resist getting runs. He leaked so much runs. But tomorrow,
20:08I think LSG, considering LSG's batting lineup, it's really power-packed. But Rahul as a captain
20:15hasn't succeeded. Even though LSG has four wins on the board, I think Rahul as a captain hasn't
20:20succeeded. Even as a player, he started well, but he started well here and there. Yes,
20:26there is some drawback. Unless he utilizes Stoenis in the proper position, I think LSG can't find
20:32their victory because Stoenis is not such a batsman to bat down the order, five down, six down.
20:37And in the one match we saw against IIT, I forgot the team, they needed some 34-odd runs and he
20:43sent Stoenis at eight or seven. Rajasthan, I think. That wasn't the right decision. So using
20:48the Stoenis position is good. I think Mumbai can jump off to a victory tomorrow because
20:57they are hurt very much because they have created some history which
21:00RCB didn't even create. We had some 6-6 losses and they just wanted to break our record.
21:08Yeah, because we have nothing to lose and it'll be interesting to see that if they can
21:14have some kind of a turnaround to spice up things at the lower half of the table. Otherwise,
21:21it's really sad to see these two great teams languishing down there.
21:27Satish, a quick word from you about tomorrow's game.
21:31I think Mumbai is not going to be doing any better than what they did last game because
21:38the T20 lot depends on the opening partnership and it happened to be your best two batsmen,
21:44Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, and they are not firing. And it's going to be extremely
21:49difficult. I think Lucknow has got a good attack as well. So it's going to be difficult.
21:54I would, if I have to back, I would still back Lucknow tomorrow because Mumbai is still not
22:02again, like if they had at least won against Chennai and from a seemingly winning position,
22:08they lost, that would have really demoralized them even more than what it was. And the sad
22:13part is, Unadkat was the guy who scored 16 runs in the last over when he batted and he gave away
22:1918 runs when he bowled. So unfortunately, that's a sad truth. I didn't know how he used up the
22:30bullers' quotas. But the moment you see Unadkat in the last over, then you know that, you know,
22:36things, it will be difficult. With his variety, it will be difficult to, you know, check a team.
22:42But again, sorry to interrupt. Again, because the performance is so bad and Rohit is not able
22:50to think, he has not used Pollard. In that scenario, Pollard would have been a perfect
22:56fit because if there's one area where he can bowl out of the off-sum and keep the runs
23:01in a check, probably he would have done it. But Unadkat is again, like he actually is,
23:08in my opinion, he has been a little overheaded because he initially does well in the initial
23:12overs and he compensates it by a bad over later. And this is nothing new over the years.
23:18Sorry, Sanjay was supposed to say something.
23:21Yes, Sanjay.
23:22Yeah, this Unadkat's topic only I was about to tell. He does well in the power play.
23:28Like just give him one over, he restricts the batsman to two or three runs. In the middle
23:32overs, he'll take, for example, three overs, he takes 18 runs. And the fourth over, he'll take it
23:37to 30 runs or 20 runs.
23:42Which is true, which is true. We always knew that, you know, they don't have the ammunition
23:46this time. But, you know, Bombay has also created stars in the past. But among the young stars,
23:52also, it's only Tilak Verma who has come of age.
23:57No, but Brevis is doing well. Brevis is doing well. So they have a good…
24:01Brevis is doing well. Yes, yes. Brevis is the guy among the overseas players. Certainly Brevis
24:07is doing well. Team David, they junk. But let us see, I'm on form, I would say it's difficult to
24:12look beyond LHGD tomorrow. If Mumbai manages to pull one back, then nothing like it.
24:21Sanjay wants to say something before we find out.
24:24India, when you come to, when you take the RCB's next match and they're facing RR,
24:30Butler is in top-notch form. He's going back-to-back hundreds and beyond.
24:34Cleaning Virat Kohli's 973. I think he might go on break and he might not. We are not sure.
24:40Tuesday's match is very important for us. If we lose Tuesday, at any cost, if RCB loses Tuesday,
24:46we'll be hit with NRR and our points will go less because we'll have four losses in the pouch.
24:52Then we have to win the rest all the games, which is difficult because we have ones against GT also.
24:56So Tuesday's match is like a do-or-die situation for RCB, considering their NRR,
25:01they have to somewhere come to minus 0.1 or they have to bring it to plus. Plus is impossible,
25:08considering RR's bowling and batting lineup both. Just lessen the NRR and come somewhere to minus
25:140.1. I want, if something happens like Satish said, if Virat doesn't sit, I want him to stand
25:21out and play in the RR match because we haven't seen that vintage Virat. We are missing it. At
25:26least in 2021, he performed it. He scored somewhere nearly 470 runs. In 2022, Dhoni scored more than
25:33Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, which is literally heartbreaking because
25:37he's seven years older to them. It's an interesting observation.
25:40And they're in top form. They're scoring lesser than Dhoni. It's something the first time I've
25:46seen. And they have to play the World Cup, Dhoni is not.
25:51True. That's a valid observation. We would like you to be back on the show later.
25:59So that's it. On that note, I think, thank you for joining us. We are a depleted team. Again,
26:05today, we don't have Anish Bhai with us. And we'll be back tomorrow with another episode
26:12of, you know, straight back with Mr. Cricket TV and Gulf News after tomorrow's game.
26:18Stay tuned. Till then, good night.