IPL 2016: Rating the captaincy of the IPL skippers so far

Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore)

The Royal Challengers Bangalore came to this edition of the IPL as clear favourites. CSK were no longer in the mix and with a star-studded squad that boasted of a top four of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson, it was time for RCB to be the franchise to dominate the IPL.

Sadly, that has not been the case so far. There is nothing that Virat Kohli can do to arrest RCB's slide as of now. Always passionate as a player, Kohli as the skipper seems to be doing all he can to inject his infectious spirit in the team. And as a player, he seems to be scoring for fun.

But after their poor run of form, some basic flaws have surfaced about the constitution of the RCB squad. The team seems to go by the four stellar names at the top of the order only with no backup players to chip in. As a batting unit, they are too dependent on Kohli and AB de Villiers to score heavily every time.

The bowling seems to be the biggest problem as of now. Mitchell Starc's injury was a big blow which left them with no reliable pacer to go in with, though Chris Jordan has been named as his replacement. Rasool, Abdulla and Chahal have all failed to impress and take up the mantle of the frontline spinner so far.

The RCB could have done better if they had strengthened their squad by adding at least one more good Indian batsman or a frontline bowler. At the moment, they are too dependent on their batsmen to win matches single-handedly.

There is absolutely nothing that Kohli can do about the team's poor form. Unless there is a radical change of fortunes, they might just remain paper tigers for this season.

Rating: 6.5/10