Captain Contentious

Virat Kohli’s decision to step down from the T20 captaincy post the upcoming T20 World Cup came across as a shocker to fans and cricket pundits alike. He has, however, expressed his intent to continue as the captain in the other two formats of the game and as a batsman in the T20 format most probably under the leadership of current Vice-Captain Rohit Sharma. With the ICC World Cup T20 2021 scheduled to begin exactly 60 days from now (qualifiers on Nov 17, Super 12s from Nov 23) Kohli has pinned the blame on workload, saying that it has taken a toll on his captaincy. It may be recalled that post the pandemic, our Men in Blue took to the field in December 2020 in Australia for the first time. Since then, the boys have played 14 Test matches, nine ODIs and eight T20 games for India across the year. But what is worth analysing is how the least-played format could take a toll on arguably one of the best skippers of India. While the impact of Kohli’s decision will certainly hang heavily on the morale of Team India, one must also weigh in on the captain’s choices. Undoubtedly, Kohli will fight tooth and nail for the first ICC Trophy under his leadership, before calling it quits in this format of the game. He might also look to play freely as a batsman as the burden of captaincy will be off his shoulders within a few days once India starts its campaign against arch-rival Pakistan. But all it takes is a closer look at the squad to see that Kohli is certainly not content as far as the T20s are concerned. Kohli’s decision appeared to have been influenced by a few key developments. Chief among them is bringing back Ravichandran Ashwin, who he chose to bench for the Test series in England and who hasn’t played a single T20 for India since 2017. Ashwin has now directly made an entry into the World Cup. Kohli’s reservations also extend to Ishan Kishan, who has predominantly played under Rohit Sharma and has now made it to the squad overtaking Sanju Samson, who has been travelling with the team as a wicketkeeper-batsman in the last couple of years. These two picks are clear evidence that Kohli and the selectors were not on the same page. Interestingly, Yuzvendra Chahal, who was championed by Kohli from Royal Challengers Bangalore to Team India is also missing from the list, adding to the likelihood that Kohli calling it quits on T20 captaincy has less to do with workload and more to do with the freedom to pick one’s players. It is also worth noting that Kohli by far is the most successful captain fielded by India across formats. Some would argue that he’s been better than Dhoni, Ganguly and Azharuddin. Cricket before COVID was even more strenuous and Kohli aced it as a batsman and captain between 2017 and 2019 when Dhoni played as his commander-in-chief. Kohli’s consistency was lauded by one and all. It was following Dhoni’s hiatus from white ball cricket from July 2019 until his retirement, that Kohli started fumbling in his choices as the captain. Developments such as the unceremonious exit of Anil Kumble as Team India’s coach in 2015, as well as RCB players making it to the Indian team, split the cricketing fraternity right down the middle. It could be said that Kohli enjoyed his captaincy as long as he was scoring centuries. But now, with over 50 innings and almost 700 days without a century, one of the greatest batsmen in modern-day cricket is staring at a slump. However, there might not be a need to push the panic button here. India has been a better side of late when Kohli hasn’t tossed the coin or played a crucial knock since last year. Statistics speak for themselves. It is high time to introduce split captaincy as it would work well for India. Hand over the ODI team to Kohli, Tests to Ajinkya Rahane and T20s to Rohit Sharma. The transition will be exciting to watch.