BENGALURU: A little before noon on Wednesday, the Royal Challengers Bangalore team trooped in for a promotional event in batches, looking relaxed and well-rested. There was banter, laughter and smiles all around. The RCB, a team that went from favourites to wooden spoon claimants in five weeks, players are hurt by the performance this season but not brooding over it.
In a star-studded team, skipper Virat Kohli remains the focal point, in victory and defeat. As he took questions on the team’s pathetic run in IPL-10, he was honest in his assessment.
“The kind of season we have had needs no explanation. As players, it hurts us the most. We tried everything to turn things around but it just didn’t happen. These things happen sometimes. Last year was great for us, this year has been the opposite. You have to accept them and move forward,” Kohli said.
Kohli admitted that when things go from bad to worse, it is difficult to pick themselves up for the next game. “It’s not easy to pick yourself up after the kind of results that we have had. It gets tough when you are pushing the team forward in whatever way you can and not getting the desired results.
“That’s when you expect the players who you believe are good enough at this level to step up, motivate themselves and take ownership of the team. If things are not going well, all you can do is maintain a bit of patience and calmness around the change room and not let issues fly around. That’s something we have done well this year,” said Kohli, who missed the first four matches of the season due to a shoulder injury.
Kohli took the audience by surprise when he revealed that the players sometimes laughed at their misery during matches. “It’s very easy to get frustrated and point fingers when you are not doing well but I think we have embraced and accepted what has happened. We have tried to laugh it off at times. There’ve been so helpless situations that we have come back to the change room laughing. We could never think we would experience something like this as a team. It can happen to one or two players, but all 11 feeling the same way is rare.”
Adding it was time to introspect on the horror show, Kohli said: “We have all learnt a lot from this season and I am sure the guys realise a lot about themselves, their games and we are only going to get better from here on. It can’t get any worse. It is an opportunity to start fresh.”
