Why Champions Need To Feel At Home Despite Pull Of Dhoni, Kohli

Teams looking for their first title have won less than 50% of their home matches. For multiple winners MI, CSK and KKR that number is between 57% and 66%.

- Dhiman Sarkar

KOLKATA: The IPL is played in the home-and-away format except for Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. For them, every venue can feel like home.

"Everywhere he goes, it's yellow," said pundit and former international Mpumelelo Mbangwa on television, as Eden exploded into cheers for Dhoni before Chennai Super Kings (CSK) took on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) here on May 7. Through what was a must-win match for KKR, support for the already-eliminated away team came from every corner of the cricket cathedral.

When Shah Rukh Khan called him "the king of 22 yards" and the "winner of a billion hearts", at the opening ceremony, also at Eden, on March 22, it felt like Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and not defending champions KKR, who were at home. When IPL resumes on Saturday it is likely to be the same, if not more following his retirement from Tests, when RCB travel to Lucknow on May 27.

This is at odds with tribalism in popular team sport. You will be walking alone if you are rooting for Declan Rice because he represents England from the Kop at Anfield when Arsenal visit Liverpool. Or, for Sunil Chhetri when he travels with Bengaluru FC to Kolkata's Salt Lake stadium.

Ajinkya Rahane, though, has made his peace with it. "They have achieved so much, done great things for the country and franchises," said the KKR skipper when asked about the support RCB and CSK get away from home because of Kohli and Dhoni.