IPL 2021: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced a hear-breaking loss in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League. Virat Kohli will have to go yet another season without winning a trophy.
Although the Indian skipper has announced that he will step down as RCB captain after this year's IPL ends, Harshal Patel, the RCB pacer has stood firmly behind his captain.
'He Is A Leader'
“In terms of his captaincy, there are captains and there are leaders, he is definitely a leader. Just because he won’t have the captaincy tag, it doesn’t make him any less of a leader,” Harshal said after RCB’s defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders to PTI.
“So, I just want to thank him for whatever he has contributed for this team and to my growth,” he said.
RCB To 'Celebrate' Kohli's Captaincy
“Yeah, I think, absolutely we are going to celebrate his contributions and it would have been nicer to celebrate that with the trophy in our hand, but it was not meant to be. But his contributions, like I said, have been immense and we are definitely going to celebrate that," he said.
The pacer was also disappointed after RCB's performance in the second phase of the tournament. “Obviously, we are all disappointed in the way we finished the tournament. The way we were playing, I think we should have been in (the) top two. But as we all know, it is a game of small margins,” Harshal said.
Sunil Narine was the hero with the bat as well as with the ball. First, he took 4 important wickets and then when he came on to bat, he hit three sixes back-to-back which shifted the momentum hugely in favour of KKR.