IPL 2022: Sometimes When A Player Is Relieved Of Captaincy, He Flourishes - Sunil Gavaskar Cautions Teams About The Return Of Virat Kohli

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar believes that the IPL 2022 season might see the return of Virat Kohli the batter. Gavaskar said that giving up the captaincy in the RCB team might help Kohli to return to the days of 2016, where he scored 973 runs for the team.

That tally remains the highest-ever scored by a player in a single season. Kohli also scored four hundreds in the IPL 2016 edition where RCB reached the finals before losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Nevertheless, being relieved of leading a side might unburned Kohli’s shoulders, as per Gavaskar.

“At the moment, we do not know whether Kohli will be captain again. Sometimes when a player is relieved of the burden of captaincy, he flourishes as he is not thinking about 10 other players.”

“When you are captain, you are thinking about 10 other players and sometimes also the other members of your squad, about their form or lack of form and things that they are not doing right which when they do it right, will be good for the team. This season, we might actually see the Kohli of 2016 where he got almost 1000 runs in the IPL season,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“RCB could be in for a real magic season from Maxwell” – Sunil Gavaskar

Now that AB de Villiers has retired from all formats of the game, RCB is in dire need of a substitute. Although there can be no replacement for a player of de Villiers’ caliber, Gavaskar feels Glenn Maxwell can step up.

“Maxwell’s cricket depends on how he approaches every inning. There are times when his approach has been unbelievably fantastic and then there are times it has not been that great. Last season, he was in a team with Virat Kohli and ABD, two of the finest batsmen that the game has seen and so maybe he lifted his game.”

“He raised the level of his game to try to keep up with that. If he says to himself I am going to do what ABD has done for RCB, then RCB could be in for a real magic season from Maxwell,” Gavaskar further mentioned.

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