Former Australian captain and former Mumbai Indians coach Ricky Ponting has said that injury to KL Rahul was the biggest flow for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL 2017. Speaking to cricket.com.au, Ponting was all praise for the Bangalore batsman who was in outstanding form in the last season of IPL.
“KL Rahul is a massive loss for them. He had a terrific back-end to last season. He did some amazing things last year so him not being at the top has been a big loss.”
Ponting also blamed the lack of responsibility from RCB’s big names- Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson and AB de Villiers, throughout the tournament.
“Their big name players just aren’t standing up like they did last year. They got on an amazing roll at the back end of last year’s tournament when Kohli was playing out of his skin, de Villiers was playing well, Gayle was chipping in and Watson was doing a good job with bat and ball,” Ponting said while speaking to cricket.com.au.
Ponting didn’t mince his words while criticising RCB’s performance and described Kohli’s performance in the season as “next to nothing”.
“But so far Kohli has done next to nothing, there’s been flashes in the pan from Gayle and AB de Villiers, but the consistency just hasn’t been there,” Ponting was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Ponting also criticised his former Australia teammate Shane Watson, who failed in almost every match he played for RCB.
“Watson’s the other one who hasn’t had that consistency and match-winning performances this season that he’s had in previous seasons. And he’s been in and out of the side and up and down the batting order to a degree. They’ve got some issues there” Ponting said.
