People Forget Virat Kohli is Human, Not a Machine: Coach Rajkumar Sharma

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has come under severe criticism after losing his match against Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. Not only bad captaincy, but he is also on the target of critics for giving up a couple of catches in the match. Kohli has so far disappointed the fans with his batting as well. While fans are criticizing Kohli for failing to lead the team, Rajkumar Sharma, the childhood coach of RCB captain Kohli, stands with him.

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma comes in ward’s defence

Rajkumar Sharma, who is the childhood coach of Virat Kohli has come out in defence of him. He stated that highs and lows are a part of sportsman’s life. There is no doubt that Virat Kohli has set some benchmarks for himself and that is why fans expect a good performance from him whenever he is on the field.

“It is just a part and parcel of a sportsman’s life. You have good days and you have bad days on the pitch. It is just that Kohli has set such a benchmark that people forget he is only human and not a machine. You are bound to have off days and there is nothing wrong with it. People will ask if there is some technical issue or a mindset issue, but I will again say that it is a part of the game.”

“You cannot succeed every time you walk onto the pitch. Kohli`s fans have been so used to seeing him perform consistently that even one bad innings make them sad,” he added.

Rajkumar Sharma on Virat Kohli dropping two catches against KXIP

In the last game played, Kohli missed a couple of catches which ultimately gave KXIP’s skipper KL Rahul a good opportunity and he smashed a match-winning hundred. Does the coach feel that his ward is a little impatient as he hasn`t been on the pitch for close to six months? Rajkumar answered in the negative

“Firstly, like I said before, these things happen. Anybody can miss a catch or two. Even Jonty Rhodes missed a catch here and there. Javed Miandad was considered a great fielder and if you go back and look, he also did slip once or twice. So, this has nothing to do with patience or the urge to set the tone after the resumption of cricket. It is just a bad day on the field which can happen to even the best. He has played enough cricket to come back strongly and lead from the front,” the coach smiled.

RCB didn’t have a good match against KXIP on Thursday as they lost by 97 runs at the Dubai Cricket Stadium. Kohli himself believes that it was a bad day, not just for the team but also for him.

“Yeah it didn`t (go well). I think we were good in the middle phase with the ball, they got off to a decent start and we pulled things back nicely. I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, a couple of important changes of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage,” he had said in the post-match presentation ceremony

Virat Kohli led RCB will now lock horns with the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) on September 28th at Dubai.