IPL 2019 | Don't care about others' comments, says Virat Kohli
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Virat Kohli has strongly reacted to Gautam Gambhir’s comments on him by saying that he does not care about such comments and wants to win the IPL title for his team. Gambhir had earlier said that the Indian skipper is “lucky” to have been retained as the captain by the Bangalore side in IPL.
The former KKR skipper Gambhir, who has two IPL titles to his name, had earlier said that Kohli is not very shrewd and tactical and also went on to add that he should not be compared with his predecessor MS Dhoni and his deputy Rohit Sharma, both of whom have three IPL titles to their credit.
The southpaw had also called Kohli “lucky” for the fact that he is still the captain of the Bangalore-based franchise in the cash-rich league.
"Obviously, you want to win the IPL. I am doing what I am supposed to do. I don't care whether I am going to be judged on this (not winning IPL) or not. There is no real, sort of, parameters you set. I try to perform wherever I can. I try to win all the possible titles, but sometimes it just doesn't happen,” Kohli said during the pre-match press conference ahead of the opening game in Chennai, reported PTI.
The top-ranked ODI batsman in the world has captained RCB for eight years and has a win percentage of over 48, with 44 wins and 2 ties in 96 games, however, he has never been able to go the distance to win the prestigious trophy.
"We have to be practical about why we haven't won one. That boils down to bad decision making in pressure situations. If I think like people from outside, I can't even sustain five games. I would be sitting at home," the 30-year-old said.
According to Gambhir, Kohli, who has even won the test and ODI series down under as the captain, should not be compared with Dhoni and Rohit Sharma.
Reacting to this, Kohli said "I know people talk about it a lot and they like to grab opportunities to talk about these things. But I have a responsibility here and given a chance, as a captain, I would love to win the IPL for my team.”
"We all are motivated to do so. It has not happened and that's the reality. No excuses for that. Only acceptance of the faults that we made in the past. The fact that we played six semifinals means that we have been a side who are always in contention. If we make better decisions, we can go further than that. That's how I see things."
RCB will face CSK at the Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in this IPL’s first encounter. Since 2014, RCB have lost all their six matches against the Dhoni-captained side.
"MS knows exactly what he wants from his team in these conditions. We all have seen that and are aware of it. We are going to be backing our skills and then find ways to come out on top,” said India’s batting star. It's very easy to be overawed by the support that CSK are going to get. In the IPL, people can get carried away by the support that a team like CSK gets at home but we have to focus on our basics," Kohli added.
"It again boils down to how much composure you have in crunch situations. If you see all the teams that have won, they have had players who have stood up and done the job. In the past, when we have been close to winning the title, we have just expected things to go our way instead of standing up. That is something we want to correct this season. If we look ugly, we look ugly. It doesn't matter. We don't want to be a side just playing flamboyant cricket. We want to be a consistent side."
