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The expected has happened and the tenure of Virat Kohli as Indian Captain is
over. What started in a dramatic fashion with MS Dhoni quitting Test cricket at
Melbourne in 2014 has ended in a similar fashion.
Kohli had already quit T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup held last year and he
was sacked as the ODI captain because the selectors did not want to split the
white ball captaincy. Rohit Sharma was the heir apparent and the transition is not
expected to be rough. However, in Test Cricket, there is no such natural successor.
The selectors would be scratching their heads with the options that are available.
A logical choice would have been Pujara or Rahane but their form has been a
cause of concern for the last two years which led to them being dropped as vice-
captains. Rohit Sharma is yet to prove himself as a leader for the longer format of
the game.
Other options are KL Rahul & Ravichandran Ashwin who have
captained Punjab Kings and Rishabh Pant who led Delhi capitals last season in IPL.
Virat Kohli’s reign was marked by certain accomplishments. He will go down in
history books as the most successful Indian test captain with 40 wins out of 68
matches. A test series win in Australia is no small feat. The period was marked by
the rise of the Indian pace battery led by Jasprit Bumrah which proved its metal
wherever it played. The players reacted aggressively to sledding and answered
with their mouths and skillful play.
This similar aggression was on display in South Africa where he showed visible
frustration with the broadcasters over Dean Elgar’s LBW appeal. His failure to win
in South Africa, New Zealand, and not winning a single ICC trophy will go down as
his low points in a remarkable 7-year saga.
It is a leader’s responsibility to groom a successor, while Rohit Sharma has been
leading Mumbai Indians since 2013 and occasionally leading the Indian limited
overs side, the same has not been the case with tests where no one has been
groomed to lead. MS Dhoni, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting groomed an heir in
their twilight years but Kohli somehow did not take up that job. Probably he had
his eyes set on the 2023 ODI world cup.
A great captain is the one who leads by example and Kohli exemplified it for years
but the friction between him and the board over the selection of Shikhar Dhawan and
Mohammed Shami, leaving T20 captaincy when he was asked by the selectors to
defer the decision for a while are not good precedents.
The fans have been drawing a lot of heat on BCCI president Saurav Ganguly for
allegedly forcing Kohli out of captaincy but it needs to be remembered that
resignation letters are written by people themselves. With a social media furor
over this sudden dramatic end and a clamor to stop watching cricket, it needs to
be remembered that Game makes legends not the other way around.
The Virat Era is over but a bright future is present for the Indian cricket team and we
have a few years to enjoy Virat Kohli the player. Who comes at the helm of the
Red Ball side shall be the question to ponder with only a month left for the Sri
Lanka series. At the end of the day, it is the game that is great and no one is
greater than the game and its spirit.