'You are bound to have off days and there is nothing wrong with it.'
Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli's failures with the bat in the first two games of the IPL has not gone down well with the fans, but his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma said his ward is 'only human and not a machine' and is bound to have 'off days'.
Kohli fell for 14 in RCB's first match against SunRisers Hyderabad, while in their second game against Kings XI Punjab, he fell for just one.
Sharma said that the benchmark that the India captain has set is the reason why fans have lost patience so quickly and want to see the batsman score runs every time he takes guard.
"It is just a part and parcel of a sportsman's life. You have good days and you have bad days on the pitch. It is just that Kohli has set such a benchmark that people forget he is only human and not a machine. You are bound to have off days and there is nothing wrong with it. People will ask if there is some technical issue or a mindset issue, but I will again say that it is a part of the game," he told ANI.
"You cannot succeed every time you walk onto the pitch. Kohli's fans have been so used to seeing him perform consistently that even one bad innings makes them sad," he added.
The last game saw Kohli also drop a couple of easy catches which ultimately saw Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul score a match-winning hundred.
When asked if he feels that his ward is a little impatient as he hasn't been on the pitch for close to six months, Rajkumar answered in the negative.
"Firstly, like I said before, these things happen. Anybody can miss a catch or two. Even Jonty Rhodes missed a catch here and there. Javed Miandad was considered a great fielder and if you go back and look, he also did slip once or twice.
"So, this has nothing to do with patience or the urge to set the tone after the resumption of cricket. It is just a bad day on the field which can happen to even the best. He has played enough cricket to come back strongly and lead from the front," the coach smiled.
RCB will look to bounce back witha strong performance after suffering a 97-run crushing defeat at the hands of Kings XI Punjab in their previous game.
Kohli made no bones about the fact that it was a bad day in the office not just for the team, but also for him individually.
"Yeah it didn't (go well). I think we were good in the middle phase with the ball, they got off to a decent start and we pulled things back nicely. I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, a couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage," he said after the game.
