“Clock’s Ticking For Kohli?” Ex-Selector Feels T20 World Cup Could Decide Captaincy Future

On Jul 3, 2021

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Ever since India lost the World Test Championship final to New Zealand, Virat Kohli’s captaincy has come under scrutiny. Despite winning bilateral series all over the world, Kohli has yet to lay his hands on a major ICC trophy which has led to some supporters losing their faith in his leadership skills.

The expectation from Kohli was always going to be high because the man he replaced had achieved what no else did. MS Dhoni is the only captain to win all-three major ICC titles in white-ball cricket.

No one is saying India are playing poorly but their continued struggle in the knockout stages of an ICC tournament has made fans lose their patience and former national selector Saba Karim feels the pressure is mounting on Kohli.

The former India wicket-keeper feels how India fare in the upcoming T20 World Cup could very well determine if Kohli keeps his job as the skipper or not.

“The T20 World Cup that is going to be played later this year will be extremely crucial for Virat Kohli’s captaincy career. The pressure is piling on Virat and he knows that he hasn’t won an ICC trophy yet. So, his aim would be for India to win the T20 World Cup,” Karim told India News Sports.

“If India can lift the trophy, then I believe Kohli will have that breathing space. Maybe he can take stock of the situation then and decide how long he wants to captain the team. His name is coming up in the list of big captains but an ICC title is far from him,” he added.

“In all three formats, you have World Championships, and all formats require a different mindset, different resources, different thinking. That’s why I feel that if one captain is leading, it will be too much to expect from him as well. With every format, you need a fresh set of ideas and that is why I feel split captaincy should be the way forward,” he said, suggesting India should perhaps look at the split-captaincy formula, adopted by several big teams like Australia and England.

Not just the Indian team, Kohli’s record as the RCB is not something to write home about as he has not won a single title despite boasting a team full of superstars.

If the selectors decide to go with different captains for all three formats, there is no dearth of options, with the most popular candidates being Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane for T20I and Test formats respectively.

Rohit is the most successful captain in the IPL history with five titles, while Rahane has proved his calibre as a Test leader when he guided India to a historic Test series win Down Under against all odds, earlier this year.

With three major ICC tournaments lined up in the next three years, including 2021 T20 WC, the clock is certainly ticking fast for ‘Kohli – The Leader’ and he must deliver silverware in order to remain at the helm.

Here’s what fans have to say:

I hope we won’t enter this World cup with kohlis as the captain. Don’t want to see them bottle one more icc trophy. Hoping for a miracle

— अभिमन्यु सिंह (@__Abhimanyu_S) July 2, 2021

So is Rahul dravid & Ganguly..They too havent won..So arent they good leader? We dont care if he wins ICC tournament or not. He has lead from front & importantl has built strong core team. Proud of him!

— Bhavesh prajapati (@Bhuvi687) July 2, 2021

But if he won’t win that then gentaly replace him from captaincy

— Kunal (@Kunal67809572) July 2, 2021

And he will not win the T20 World Cup either

— Sab Changa Si (सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब दिल में है) (@philpjg) July 3, 2021

He is going to captain till 2023 WC with no ICC trophy. Mark my statement ! Rohit sharma is the man. Virat won test series back in Australia so did Ajinkya last year (most memorable series) so in a nutshel he hasn’t won any extraordinary series or tournaments as such.

— Prashant Shanbhag (@iampshanbhag18) July 3, 2021

Does our captain knows our 1st playing xi… No not at all… The music chair is still on… This way u cant win icc events…

— ItsAMIT (@ImAmitSahani) July 2, 2021