Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
Virat KohliIndia’s decision to step down from T20 captaincy after next month’s World Cup is certainly an act of self-preservation in terms of getting back its mojo with the bat, but at the same time, the development appears to be a sign of things to come in the ODI system. .
While Kohli has said that he will continue to be the captain in the other two formats, no one can say with certainty that he will be India’s 50-over captain going into the 2023 World Cup at home.
While workload management is a perfectly acceptable reason to give up the T20 captaincy, but if one looks at India’s calendar till 2023, apart from the World Cup, there are around 20 bilateral T20 games in which Kohli will not be the captain.
A BCCI insider said, “Virat knew that he would have been dropped from the white-ball captaincy. If the team does not perform well in the UAE World T20, then as far as the white-ball captaincy is concerned, He’s gone for good.” about things, told PTI.
“He took the pressure off himself a bit because it seems he is on his own terms. If the performance goes down in T20s then it may not be for 50 overs,” he added.
So, if BCCI decides to relieve Kohli from the 50-over captaincy in the near future, one should not be surprised as this is Indian cricket and fortunes change faster than anyone.
A trophy-less T20 World Cup and Kohli may have to play as a pure batsman even in the 50-over format. There are no traces to speculate that even in the dressing room, Kohli’s deputy Rohit Sharma Regarded as a “leader”, he has learned to carry a young army along year after year for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
It is one of the worst kept secrets in Indian cricket that ‘King Kohli’ hasn’t got the full support of the dressing room for quite some time now. His style of functioning, according to those who have observed him closely, is bordered by autocracy with little room for inclusion.
Be it playing two spinners in the World Test Championship final in Southampton or not allowing any player to settle for the No. 4 position ahead of the 2019 World Cup, his lack of flexibility has often been talked about in a calm voice.
Recently, in the Test series against England, the decision to bench the world’s No. 1 off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was poor even though India were ahead 2-1.
He enjoyed supreme authority ahead of the Adelaide Test against Australia earlier this year. But 36 All Out and the subsequent paternity break changed a lot.
No one will say this openly, but the players felt more united than ever and were in a much happier place when they rallied to defeat a full-strength Australia (unlike 2018-19), in which A great draw game was also involved.
By the time Kohli joined India’s set-up during the home series against England, he knew the youngster, who had come of age, had empowered himself with solid individual performances.
“The problem with Virat is his communication. In case of MS (Dhoni), his room will be open 24×7 and players can just walk, play PS4, have food and let their hair down and Can talk cricket if necessary.
“Off the field, Kohli is really incommunicado,” a former India player who witnessed the early days of Kohli’s captaincy told PTI during an informal chat.
“Rohit has MSD complexions but in a different way. He takes junior players out for meals, gives them a friendly pat on the back when they are down and the mental aspects of a player’s makeup from the inside out. You know,” said the ex-cricketer.
When it comes to handling junior players, the biggest complaint against Virat is leaving him in the middle when the chips go bad.
“Kuldeep Yadav, after taking five wickets in Australia, went downhill. Same for Rishabh Pant when he was not in form. Umesh YadavA senior bowler, who works hard on Indian pitches, never gets the answer as to why he is not considered unless someone gets injured?
Another cricketer who is aware of Kohli’s chop-and-change policy said, “He speaks about communication in media conferences, but it is true that he has rarely caught a player’s hand when he has the most of his captain. be needed.”
A senior BCCI official on Thursday pointed out an interesting aspect of the board’s media release. “If you look at the statements of Sourav and Jay, both have congratulated him but didn’t say a word whether he would continue as captain till the 2023 ODI World Cup,” he said. So he will remain, it is a far cry.’
It is learned that head coach Ravi Shastri, who will step down at the end of the T20 World Cup, has spoken to him in detail and Kohli will now focus on his original effort – to cross 100 international hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar.
Reaching 50 Test hundreds will be difficult, but with 44 in ODIs, he can certainly do a lot in pursuit of that world record.
It is also being said that Kohli had gone to the selection committee with a proposal that Rohit be dropped from the ODI vice-captain as he is 34. He wanted the ODI vice-captaincy to be handed over to KL Rahul, with Rishabh Pant playing the role. T20 format.
“It has not gone down well with the board, which believes that Kohli does not want a real successor,” said a board source.
In the corridors of BCCI, officials felt that Kohli wanted to preserve his 50-over captaincy till the 2023 World Cup. However, it turns out reliably that this may not be the case as Kohli has managed to isolate more people in the past few months – players, support staff, national selectors and last but not least the Mandarins of the board.
Pant, Rahul and Bumrah are T20 vice-captaincy options
The BCCI is in no hurry to announce the designated vice-captain for T20 captain-in-waiting Rohit Sharma after the T20 World Cup, but there are three possible options.
One is Delhi Capitals captain Pant, if his team wins then who? IPL, would be the biggest contender. “Pant is a serious contender but you can’t rule out KL either as he is an IPL captain. The dark horse will be Jasprit Bumrah”
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