Why is Rohit Sharma more successful than Virat Kohli as an IPL Captain?

 

Two best batsmen of the highest quality, two dominating characters, both in their own ways, two individuals who always want to win; a lot of similarities between the two modern greats. But there is one thing which separates them, there IPL's captaincy records. Rohit Sharma has won 4 IPL titles as a skipper for his team whereas Virat Kohli has only been able to take his team to the finals once. What separates Rohit Sharma as a captain from Virat Kohli in the IPL?

The thing which separates both of them as a skipper is the quality of players in their team. When Rohit Sharma started captaining Mumbai Indians, he got a lot of quality and experienced players in the form of Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson and all of them were in their supreme form too, who knew how to handle pressure and how to perform in different situations. Year after year Rohit Sharma got new stars in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell McClenaghan and he built his team around them whereas Virat Kohli didn't had enough resources. RCB was always dependent on the trio of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli & AB de Villiers. They got the services of Mitchell Starc for a year only and only Chahal has been brilliant in their bowling department in the last few years. Their lower middle order batting and their bowling were always there biggest issues which they couldn't rectify over the years.

If Bumrah had an off day, Rohit could go to Malinga, if Malinga too had an off day then Rohit had options to go to Mitchell McClenaghan, Harbhajan Singh or the Pandya brothers too. Same was the case in their batting department as well. If Rayudu couldn't take you over the line, Rohit will. If Rohit too couldn't do that, Pollard and the Pandya brothers would have done that for sure which made Rohit's work as a captain a lot easier. Rohit also had Corey Anderson and Lendl Simmons for one or two seasons who were exceptional. Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan were brilliant last season too whereas on the other hand if Chahal had an off day, Virat seemed clueless on most of the occasions as he didn't had a lot of options whereas in the batting department too if Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle didn't score, no one else stood up to take the responsibility.

According to me, the main issue isn't the difference in their captaincy's skill. It's the number of quality players and the resources that has created the major difference. Virat's success as an Indian captain is the biggest proof that how good a captain he is as soon as he gets the quality players. Yes, Rohit Sharma is slightly a better captain than Virat Kohli but Virat Kohli isn't that bad captain that his IPL captaincy records suggest.