Virat Kohli’s failure to lead the Indian cricket team to an ICC trophy has been a major roadblock in his captaincy career for quite some time now. When MS Dhoni departed, everyone expected Kohli to carry forward his legacy, under whom India bagged three ICC titles in six years between 2007 and 2013 (T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy).
To be fair, under Kohli’s leadership Team India has performed exceedingly well across formats, both home and away, but his failure to deliver an ICC trophy has overshadowed all his achievements.
The fact that the BCCI roped in MS Dhoni as a mentor for the T20 World Cup only goes on to show how desperately the selectors want India to end this eight-year long title drought and the reports are suggesting that Kohli might enter the marquee tournament with his white-ball captaincy on the line.
In fact, the BCCI top brass was not happy with Kohli’s team selection for the WTC final. In a meeting held in July after India lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand, BCCI top office bearers, including president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, and vice-president Rajeev Shukla, weren’t happy with Kohli’s idea of going in with two spinners, ignoring the overcast conditions in Southampton.
“The BCCI is deeply concerned about Virat Kohli’s captaincy, especially in the ICC tournaments because of his failure as a captain in the ICC events. In a meeting held by the BCCI office-bearers in July after the WTC Final, it emerged that a lot of BCCI officials are unsatisfied with Virat’s captaincy,” read a report in cricketaddictor.com.
“The decision to go ahead with 2 spinners in the WTC Final didn’t go too well with the BCCI officials and hence, it was discussed that the T20 World Cup can be the last opportunity for Virat Kohli, especially in the limited-overs format,” it added.
Not just the Indian team, Kohli hasn’t won any title with his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and many argue he does not know how to win trophies. On the other hand, his current white-ball deputy Rohit Sharma has won a record five IPL titles with Mumbai Indians and many feel he is better-suited to lead the side, at least in limited-overs cricket.
Ever since India lost the WTC final, fans have been demanding Kohli’s removal and if indeed he returns empty-handed from the UAE, this noise to sack him will escalate to a whole new level. If selectors decide to move away from Kohli in white-ball cricket, then Rohit is the front-runner to replace him.
It’s time that Kohli realises that winning titles is perhaps the most important thing in any team sport as this is what determines a player’s legacy. The reason why people love Dhoni so much is because he won trophies.
For many years, Argentine great Lionel Messi had to cope with severe criticism for not winning a major title with his national team. But he finally shut them down by winning Copa America a couple of months ago and Kohli also knows that the clock is ticking fast and he needs to deliver silverware to save his job.
