The coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Ray Jennings, has said that he is not sure who will lead the beleaguered Bangalore team after Kevin Pietersen flies off to West Indies for their test series. This comes as a big surprise as the owner of the team, Vijay Mallya had earlier announced that the captaincy will be divided between Pietersen and Jacques Kallis.
Jennings said, “It is still open. I need to sit down and discuss with the management what we need to do”
The main issue with Kallis is that he may not command a place in the starting eleven for all matches and that could come in his way as the captain. He hasn’t made a deep impression with the bat yet, in the tournament, while with the ball, he has leaked runs aplenty.
According to Jennings, the others in line for the captaincy are Mark Boucher, Anil Kumble and even Rahul Dravid, though, if Kallis plays, he too could be in line with the captaincy.
Jennings has also made it clear that he was not very happy with the performance of the players as a bunch. He said, “I don’t think too many players have risen to the occasion in one game. That goes to everybody. There are not too many players who have walked away with results that would make an impact on the field”
While conceding that he may have made some strategic mistakes, he also said that the players also needed to take part of the blame because they had failed to put their hand up and perform. He said, “I would think in 20-over cricket your top four will have to do something. And our top four haven’t executed the strategy we have discussed, which are the best at the time. But they (strategies) are not working.”