‘Virat’s captaincy decision didn’t impact RCB’s performance’

Abu Dhabi, September 21

Virat Kohli’s decision to quit Royal Challengers Bangalore captaincy after the ongoing season had no impact on the team’s performance against Kolkata Knight Riders, asserted head coach Mike Hesson.

RCB were handed a nine-wicket loss by KKR, a day after skipper Kohli announced he will step down as captain of the IPL team at the end of the ongoing season.

Hesson believes it was important to make the announcement as early as possible. “No, I (don’t) think so. It was actually important to get any form of distraction out of the way early. So, we sort of talked about making that announcement as soon as possible really, so all the players were aware of it,” Hesson said.

“But it really hasn’t had any impact on the performance. We weren’t certainly sharp as we needed to be with the bat, we didn’t adapt to conditions, we lost wickets in clubs, everything we can’t do as a batting group. But I’m still confident of this group, we will turn around pretty quickly,” added Hesson. — PTI