What happened in the KKR vs RCB match on 5th April 2019 is a lesson in Leadership, at least for me.
Virat Kohli(VK) showcased exactly what a leader should NOT do when the going is tough. VK's stature as a player is undebated but as a leader his behavior was far from ideal and it taught me a lesson or two yesterday.
It's good to be demanding of your team but it's how you treat them that eventually gets the best out of them. It is here that VK faulters the most.
His biggest challenge, the way I see it, is he is far too expressive on field. While that is good as a player, it's not good at all as a captain. In yesterday's match Siraj dropped two catches. While that was unpardonable, as a good captain, VK should have sensed that he needed Siraj -the bowler to bowl in the end and hence should have kept his emotions in check. Instead VK was at his expressive best and angrily changed Sirajs fielding position after the dropped catch. That would have had a tremendous negative impact on the young man mentally (remember VK is not just the RCB captain but also India's captain) and he bowled two beamers and had to be taken off in the middle of his over.
Stoinus, who was not mentally prepared, had to complete the over and was taken to the cleaners. Again here VK was all emotions on the field. Then Southee was taken for 29 runs in the penultimate over. Now, Southee is not any club level bowler. He has single handedly won matches for NewZealand with his bowling. What happened to him can happen to the best of the best and when the going is bad, even the best need some guidance as they are not mentally in a frame of mind to think in the right direction. All he probably needed was a calm arm around his shoulder. VK should have shown more ownership and tact by speaking to Southee and giving some tips on where to bowl. Instead VK was looking like a kid lost in the woods. Bret Lee, in the post match session showed where exactly one needed to bowl when bowling to Russell. Rabada had cleaned up Russell in the super over and shown how it can be done.
What VK probably needed to do was be calm during the match and then in the team meeting or in an one on one blast the guys who were making the mistakes. By his expressive behavior in public he just created panic in his teammates and that was the cause of the defeat after scoring 200+.
Nothing to take away from the way Russell batted but the learning for me was that - there will be times that you will be outplayed in life. One needs to keep ones mind calm during these times and not make the job more difficult by creating undue pressure for oneself and ones team as, by doing that, you only make the opposition job easier. As much as Russell won the match yesterday with his power hitting, VK and RCB bowlers contributed to it by creating panic.
It takes great skill to get the best out of others and unfortunately VK doesn't have it yet. One needs to learn that skill from MSD. MSD possess that skill and that's why he is such a successful captain even when his prowess as a finisher have been far left behind.
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