Number of ICC trophies won under the captaincy of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli is a best batsman in the world at present but a modest captain with least doubt in that by all margins.

Cricket is not just a word but nothing less than a passion in a country like India. India’s cricket journey started with its Test match against England in 1932, with which India became the sixth country to play a Test match cricket and after a gap of almost 20 years, in 1952, India won its first Test match.

While on the other hand, India went on to play its first ODI game against England in 1974 and since then, India’s cricket history has seen given legendary captains and players like Sunil Gavaskar, BS Chandrasekhar, Rahul Dravid, and Anil Kumble who enchanted everyone with their poetry of surreal class.

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When we talk about captains, there have been many great captains in India cricket history who have taken India to new heights, Gundappa Viswanath (my best captain), Sunil Gavaskar (the success in the 70s or 80s), Rahul Dravid(the last best captain), Sourav Ganguly(the reason of current Indian body language), Ms. Dhoni and the name of run machine Virat Kohli has also been added to the list of captains column.

Cricket has changed a lot in the last five decades and from the late ’90s era, we have seen a lot of changes in cricket formats. Change is the rule, but playing and spoiling of game corrupt the beauty of the game by all margins.

Where the current India captain has hinted at relinquishing the captaincy post the upcoming T20 World Cup so that he can focus more time as a batsman in his career. It has been almost 13 years since Virat Kohli in International cricket where he has achieved a lot with his confidence and has set many records at a young age.

As a great batsman, Virat Kohli is compared to the greatest batsman of the world, the hunger for records and runs is everything Virat Kohli has to achieve on his own, in which there are no two opinions. But measuring a captain is correct on these parameters, maybe not, apart from the cricket history of India, if we look at the rest of the captains of the world, then Virat Kohli has probably been far behind. Not so long ago, when former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir who has played for the Delhi Ranji team also said,

“Virat Kohli, at the moment has won nothing, to be honest, as a leader,” Gambhir said in an interview with The Quint.

“He has a lot to achieve. He can keep scoring his runs, but for me, I think in a team sport, till the time you don’t win the big trophies, you will never be able to fulfil your entire career,” he added.

Another very straightforward and bold opinion from the former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir which indicates why Virat Kohli is not the best captain in Indian Cricket history,

 

But what is the reason why Virat Kohli could not become a successful captain, we do not go back much if we talk about the last two decades in which Sourav Ganguly (2002 NatWest Finals) and Ms. Dhoni (2007 T20 World Cup and 2008 CB Series) were the captains, then even Virat Kohli has failed in his short time captaincy.

While at the big tournaments as well, Virat Kohli has failed miserably be it the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, 2017 Champions Trophy finals, or more recently, Test Championship finals Virat Kohli has failed on all three occasions. After losing the World Test Championship finals, former Pakistan batsman Salman Butt commented on his captaincy.

“You can be a very good captain but if you don’t win any title, masses won’t remember you. May be you are a good captain and have good plans but your bowler may not be able to execute it. So luck has to be on your side as well. People only remember those who win tournaments,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

“Virat Kohli has not won any ICC title neither has he won the IPL. His energy level is at a different level, and it is evident that he wants to give his best every time he steps out in the middle,” said Butt.

If we talk about IPL, then there too Virat Kohli has completely failed while captaining Royal Challengers Bangalore. In the current decade, India has seen many such players not playing for India like Yuvraj Singh, Varun Aaron, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Gautam Gambhir who were not included in the team without any reason on such occasions.