'Because of hero worship...,' Former India player on RCB retaining Virat Kohli ahead of IPL mega auction

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has questioned Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) decision to retain Virat Kohli ahead of mega auction. The former batter also raised concerns about the proposition of Kohli being named as skipper in the upcoming IPL season.

"I just have one question from the fans. If instead of Virat Kohli, there was someone else. You just remove Virat Kohli from your mind, and just look at his performance in the IPL, his batting and captaincy performance. Then you think whether it is the right decision to make him the captain," Manjrekar said while talking on Star Sports.

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"Just because he is Virat Kohli, 95 per cent fans want him to be the captain. But if you just go by his performances, it is not that impressive. This is my problem, I don't want to get carried away, because of hero worship, I don't want to get away from the cricket truth," he added.

RCB retained Kohli along with pacer Yash Dayal and batter Rajat Patidar, leaving them three right-to-match (RTM) options at the upcoming auction. They, however, let go some big names from the squad namely skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green and Mohammed Siraj.

It is to be noted that Kohli has been with RCB since the inaugural session of 2008 and has played 252 matches with them. In this duration he has scored 8004 runs in the league - the most for any batter - at an average of 38.65 and a strike rate of almost 132. He has also managed eight hundreds and 55 fifties with a best of 113 not out.

Kohli has also captained the side in 143 matches - the third most in the IPL - winning 66 and losing 70 of them. He, however, never managed to help RCB win the title.