Gautam Gambhir has made an incredible claim regarding Virat Kohli's captaincy at RCB. | Photo Credit: PTI

Ever since Virat Kohli took over the captaincy in 2013, RCB has made it to the playoffs twice while ending up eighth and sixth respectively in the last two seasons. Now, veteran Indian cricketer, Gautam Gambhir has ripped apart the Indian skipper for his poor captaincy record in Indian Premier League. And Gambhir feels that Kohli should be thankful to the RCB franchise for sticking around with him despite the team's cabinet remaining empty after 11 complete editions.

Gambhir mentioned that there have been a lot of other captains who have had a shorter run following a poor captaincy record. But, Kohli has been lucky enough despite his ordinary numbers. Gambhir also added that Kohli still has a long way to go in terms of captaincy and cannot be compared to skippers like Rohit Sharma or MS Dhoni who have won three IPL titles apiece.

"Still a long way to go. I don't see him as a shrewd captain or a tactful captain. And he hasn't won the IPL. So ultimately a captain is only as good as his record till the time you don't win the IPL. There are people who have won the trophy three times - MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. So I think he has a long way to go. You cannot compare him to someone like Rohit or Dhoni at this stage because he has been part of RCB and captaining RCB for the last seven to eight years and he has been very lucky and should rather thank the franchise that they stuck to him because not many captains have got such a long run where they haven't won a tournament," Gambhir told on Star Sports' analysis show ahead of IPL 2019.

Kohli has led RCB in 96 matches which included games in the presently-defunct Champions League T20 as well. Under him, the team has won 44 out of these encounters with 45.83% under the Indian skipper. Meanwhile, RCB lost 48 matches while three ended in a draw under the 30-year-old. His numbers stand well below in the list of skippers who have led an IPL team in over 50 matches.

Dhoni stands atop in the list with 94 wins (59.12 per cent) out of 159 matches. Rohit records a win percentage of 58.43 with 52 victories out of 89 matches. In fact, even for Gambhir, who led Kolkata Knight Riders to two IPL trophies, has a better captaincy number than Kohli - 70 wins (54.69) out of 128 matches.

Despite enjoying the likes of batting maestros Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle (in the past) amid a few good domestic talents and fairly decent bowling attack, RCB have still remained trophy-less in IPL.

Earlier this week, Kohli mentioned that poor decision-making at key moments has been among primary reason behind RCB not winning an IPL trophy after 11 editions.

"The failure lies where decisions aren't made properly," Kohli said. "If I sit here and say our luck was bad, that won't be right. You make your own luck, and if you make poor decisions and the other team makes good ones, you will lose. When we played big matches too, our decision-making wasn't right.

"When your decision-making is spot-on and balanced, those teams win the IPL. The teams that are more relaxed, don't take the pressure too much, and take good decisions in pressure moments - they should get the credit for winning."