Kohli the skipper steps down, Virat the batter resurrected?

January 15, 2022 - 18:44 IST: In a sudden turn of events the Indian Test cricket captain Virat Kohli resigned from his leadership post in the long form of cricket, thus ending the 7 year streak as skipper across all formats. 

Earlier in 2021, Virat had stepped down as not only the IPL captain for his team Royal Challengers Bangalore, but also the Indian T20I team. Subsequently in a decision shrouded in mystery he also “quit” as ODI captain.

However, the latest decision has left the cricket World more surprised with the timing than shocked.

"Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it's now" – said Virat Kohli through his media statement.

For a cricketer who wears his heart on his sleeve, his batting exploits are tremendous, so too are his captaincy records. With 40 wins from 68 matches as captain, Virat has undoubtedly been the most successful Indian Test skipper with his predecessor MS Dhoni (27 wins from 60 matches) and the current BCCI President Saurav Ganguly (21 wins from 49 matches) following suit. 

At a time when the Indian Cricket team has had a phenomenal run in Tests with victories in Australia and England in 2021, it was expected to conquer the last bastion South Africa with ease. However after the win in Centurion, the Indian batting did not live up to the 2021 form and for a change the incisive pace attack too seemed short on firepower losing the next two tests and the series.

Much of the blame for the loss was on the batters who failed to put up match winning first innings score both at Wanderers and Cape Town. The senior pros in the team Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been persisted for way too long in spite of below par performances and the skipper himself has been braving a dry run of hundreds for almost 3 years. Virat’s form has never been under as much scrutiny as the others in the middle order, for that matter it has been his choice of the playing XI that was questionable. An in form Shreyas Iyer, with unarguably no overseas Test experience not being retained, the trusted and conditions wary Hanuma Vihari (who has been in South Africa leading the India A team prior to this series) being benched are some decisions cricket pundits and fans were searching for answers.

Over the years Virat Kohli brought in a sense of the habit of winning with aggression, which took India to the top again (after similar exploits by MS Dhoni and his predecessors). His leadership style was unparalleled world over and his mere presence in the middle (fielding in the slips or batting) ensured the opposition took notice of the fiery nature. 

However extensive aggression, quite a few misplaced actions, meant he turned out to be the bad poster boy for the gentleman’s game rather than an example of good conduct. To his credit Kohli’s aggression did not carry outside the field of play, but then they did leave a sour note on the proceedings. The recent incident involving an arguably skewed DRS call by the third umpire denying the wicket of the SA skipper in the final Test, was responded by in-the-face comments by the skipper, the deputy and the senior bowler against the broadcaster. Agreed it was blunder, but then the role-model for millions of budding young cricketers worldwide left a bad example with his momentary expression of dissent, which could have been avoidable. That was just one of the many unpalatable reactions by the angry captain, the list of infamous send offs for batsmen after being out is countless. 

A brief look back

Over the past few months since the ICC T20 World cup debacle, India team has had some churning of sorts. The elevation of Rohit Sharma as the white ball cricket captain and the murky handling of the leadership change by the BCCI bosses (especially Ganguly) left lot of dirty linen washed in public.

That Rohit Sharma, the designated deputy, ‘withdrew’ from the Test series owing to injury notwithstanding, the naming of KL Rahul as Vice-captain did raise a few eyebrows. The last vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane had lead India with aplomb in Tests minus Kohli, while his own place in the team was questioned by the pundits, the selectors never dropped a hint of dropping him from the team. It would have been ideal to have persisted with Rahane as vice-captain, and subsequently as stand-in captain at Wanderers. KL Rahul, who not long ago had fallen from the selectors view across formats, was catapulted to India skipper no. 34 and his record as a leader with the Punjab IPL team continued to haunt him in his first outing on national duty too. Here it would not be out of place to question the selectors on why seniors in the team like Pujara or Ravichandran Ashwin were not considered for the vice-captain (or the stand-in captain thereof)? 

Looking Ahead

As an era ends with Virat Kohli’s stepping down as skipper, Indian team will need a new captain. December 30, 2014 when MS Dhoni decided to not just step down as captain but also retire from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket, Indian Cricket team had a Young and dynamic cricketer waiting in the wings to take over. Virat Kohli successfully filled the shoes and took the team to greater heights in the past 7 years.

The current succession plan doesn’t have an able suitor. KL Rahul, young and capable, still has not shown adept leadership skills. Rohit Sharma at 35 years in 3 months, is not a long time solution and is currently nursing injuries. Ravichandran Ashwin, arguably one of the better cricket brains, never made it to the list of skipper probables.
May be Rahul Dravid the coach will have some thoughts to share, soon!

That leaves us with a younger options Rishabh Pant or Shreyas Iyer or even a Jasprit Bumrah. Well, their time might come but how soon depends on the mindset of the Indian Cricket selectors – who for the record continue to give credence to the label given by Mohinder Amarnath in 1989 as a ‘bunch of jokers’!

While the crisis will blow over with a relatively easier Test series coming up against Sri Lanka at home in February last week, we may see a new captain or the current standby persisted, for now the conspiracy theorists will for sure have a field day!

Hail King Kohli – We surely expect the superstar batsman to regain his mojo with lesser pressure of leading the team and take the team back to its glory with his extraordinary batting exploits – A ton of tons surely beckons!

- Venkat Parthasarathy

Pure Cricket

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Pics Courtesy: Internet