Virat Kohli and his lost legacy: Indian cricket will be stepping into a new area where Rohit Sharma has been honoured with the captaincy in the shorter versions of the game. After stepping down from the T20 captaincy, the Hitman was announced as the captain in the shorter versions of the game too.
As we approach the end of a phenomenal era, there was one tarnish that Virat Kohli wished shouldn’t have been there and it was the absence of an ICC trophy. This is not a blasphemous tirade against the King but an attempt to enlist a few reasons why he could not win an ICC Trophy.
Going into overdrive of trust
Kohli always had a knack for overdoing things and that included either not showing trust at all towards a specific player or showing endless faith in a player. This is one balance that a captain must always know and it is about how much faith to be pinned on an individual. From using Kedar Jadhav in the ICC Champions Trophy final against Pakistan for his full quota of 10 overs where the part-time spinner got hammered away for a lot of runs to casting a question mark upon Ashwin’s white-ball career. Only if he would have known the balance, a lot could have been sorted.
Overtly media-friendly instead of being the astute strategist that Dhoni was
When the WTC final started with Southampton being deluged with rain, India could have easily introduced Siraj in the team lineup. Sadly, for them, they chose to resort to the team that was announced to the media and it bore them a hefty cost. Despite whipping out a few answers that would have bothered the media personalities, it always felt that he was playing to the screen instead of plotting strategies that could have been more instrumental in bringing dynasties down.
Lack of a towering presence
It is of utmost importance that a captain has the most intimidating presence on the field that not only keeps the player in check but also binds them together in fighting for the same cause. Kohli was definitely aggressive on the field but that aggression couldn’t find a balancing calm. That is where there was a growing distance between the players and the King. That is why when the individuals failed, the team never clicked. It was like a domino effect for the Indian cricket team in whatever way the pendulum swung. When this happens at the biggest stage of all, a lot comes at stake.
