In what was his last season as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain, Virat Kohli failed to get his hands on the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy. Facing Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their IPL 2021 Eliminator on Monday, RCB lost by four wickets. Kohli top-scored for his side with a knock of 39 off 33 balls, but RCB could only post 138 for seven in 20 overs. Inspired by Sunil Narine, KKR reached 139 for six in 19.4 overs. After the match, former England captain Michael Vaughan revealed that Kohli fell “a long way short” during his tenure as RCB skipper.

Speaking to Cricbuzz after the game, Vaughan said, “His legacy as captain in IPL cricket will be one that didn’t win. That’s what it’s about, you know high-level sport is about getting over the line, winning trophies, particularly when you’re at the standard of what Virat Kohli is at. I’m certainly not saying that he is, but he will see himself as a failure in IPL captaincy — because he is such a driven player and person – since he’s not got that trophy in his hands”, he stated.

“In terms of what Virat is doing with the Test team and Test match cricket and developing that Indian Test match team is terrific. You’d have to say and be honest that in one-day cricket and T20 cricket with the national side and with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he has fallen a long way short.”

Vaughan said that RCB were well-prepared for IPL 2021 and had the perfect team combination in terms of batting and bowling.

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“The talent and the squads that he has to work with is right up there with the best. So, the RCB team is very top heavy with the batting. This year, with the quality of Maxwell and Harshal Patel and Yuzi Chahal, they had the bowling to match the batting, and yet they have fallen short”, he said.

Virat Kohli is also set to step down from Team India’s T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to begin from October 17 in the UAE and Oman.