While the second phase of the Indian Premier League is all set to start today, the entire cricket fraternity is talking about the current situation of the Indian cricket team as India captain Virat Kohli has decided to quit India’s T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup.
However, Kohli has said that he will lead the team in the 50-over format, there is no surety about this. While workload management can be the valid reason for quitting T20 captaincy, India will play only 20 bilateral T20 games apart from the World Cup until 2023.
🇮🇳 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Ds7okjhj9J
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 16, 2021
“Virat knew that he would have been removed from white ball captaincy. If the team doesn’t do well at the UAE World T20, he was gone for good as far as white-ball leadership is concerned,” a BCCI insider, in the know of things, told PTI.
“He just reduced a bit of pressure on himself as it would seem that he is there on his own terms. It might not happen for 50 overs if the performance in T20 hits a downward spiral,” he further added.
So, if the BCCI decides to relieve Virat Kohli from the 50-over leadership as well in the future, no one would have been surprised as well. Meanwhile, he has won several bilateral series but he failed to win a single ICC Trophy yet.
“The problem with Virat is his communication. In case of MS (Dhoni), his room would be open 24×7, and players could just walk in, play the PS4, have a meal and let their hair down and if required talk cricket. Beyond the ground, Kohli is literally incommunicado,” a former India player, who has seen Virat Kohli in his early days of captaincy, told PTI.
“Rohit has shades of MSD but in a different manner. He takes the junior players out for meals, gives them a friendly pat on the back when they are down and knows the mental aspects of a player’s make-up inside out,” he again said.
However, when it comes to managing junior players, he hasn’t got that much success compares to MS Dhoni.
“Kuldeep Yadav, after a five-wicket haul in Australia, went downhill. Ditto for Rishabh Pant when he wasn’t in form. Umesh Yadav, a senior bowler, who is a workhorse on Indian pitches, never gets an answer on why he is not considered till someone gets injured? He speaks about communication at media conferences but this is the truth that he has hardly hand-held any player when they needed their captain the most,” another cricketer added.
Unlikely that Virat Kohli would be captain until 2023 ODI World Cup
On the other hand, a senior BCCI official has shared an interesting side of the Board’s media release on Thursday as well. However, officials have figured that Virat Kohli wants to safeguard his ODI captaincy until the 2023 World Cup as well.
“If you look at Sourav and Jay’s statements, both have congratulated but not a word uttered if he would remain the captain till 2023 ODI World Cup. So, he would remain, is a far-fetched conclusion,” he said.
“This didn’t go down well with the Board which believes that Kohli doesn’t want an actual successor,” a BCCI source has said.
It will be interesting to see how things take place.
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