Kohli hints at shake-up after 'hurtful' loss

Virat Kohli has criticised his batsmen and hinted at a player shake-up in the off-season after his Royal Challengers Bangalore missed the IPL playoffs for the second year in a row.

RCB's loss to Rajasthan on Saturday ended any hopes they had of reaching the knockout phase, a disappointing result for a side that includes both Kohli and AB de Villiers, two of the best batsmen in the world.

Kohli has been vocal in his criticism of his players at times during the tournament; he labelled his side's bowling "criminal" after they failed to defend a total of 205 against Chennai last month, while he said his side "deserved to lose" after a batting collapse against Sunrisers Hyderabad a fortnight ago.

The skipper was more measured in his assessment after the loss to Rajasthan, but was still disappointed after watching a collapse of 7-33 in their 30-run defeat.

"We were cruising at one stage ... and to see the way the game went on from there is quite hurtful," Kohli told Star Sports.

"Too much batting stress (rests) on just AB de Villiers. I thought we were in a great position at one stage. We were 75 for 1, the way we were bundled out after that wasn't ideal.

"A guy like AB, who has the ability to hit fours and sixes, was knocking it around. We needed more smart decision-making there and guys were just not up to the mark and that is disappointing to see.

"It's not something that should be repeated by five, six guys in a row. One or two guys is okay, but the others should have applied themselves and that wasn't the case tonight."

RCB added plenty of batting firepower to their side at this year's player auction, picking up Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock and Parthiv Patel as well as big-hitting middle-order players Moeen Ali and Colin de Grandhomme.

But while Kohli (sixth) and de Villiers (eighth) are among the leading run-scorers this season, they received little support and Kohli said the franchise needs to re-think their approach to player selection.

"We wanted to strengthen the middle order that hasn't been our strength for the last few years," Kohli said.

"It's something we need to look forward to in the next season. We need to be more smart about how we compose our team, I guess.

"The bulk of the scoring responsibility and stress cannot always be on a guy like AB all the time in the middle order. Guys need to step up at the right times.

"We certainly want to take up the responsibility but there have to be contributions at important stages. One occasion was tonight where AB still scored runs, apart from him others around him just didn't show enough composure."

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