Virat Kohli is hailed as one of India’s greatest-ever captains, and arguably the greatest Test skipper. Under Kohli, India achieved a lot of success, the most memorable of which was a maiden Test series win in Australia in 2018/19,
Virat Kohli also is credited for developing a fast-bowling culture and raising the fitness standards of the Indian players.
However, the major criticism laid on to former captain Virat Kohli and former head coach Ravi Shastri is that they used to ring in changes in the teams and squads frequently, rarely giving any youngster or fringe player a long rope. A number of players would have felt they were harshly and unfairly dropped by captain Virat Kohli in his tenure.
4 Indian players who were treated unfairly by captain Virat Kohli:
Amit Mishra
It remains one of the most baffling exclusions when Amit Mishra was dropped from the ODI side, having taken a 5-wicket haul in his last ODI match and was the Player of the Series in his last ODI series.
Mishra’s last ODI game was in 2016 vs New Zealand, in which he picked a 5-wicket haul and was the Player of the Series for taking 15 wickets in 5 matches. That was under MS Dhoni. However, when Kohli took over the white-ball captaincy at the start of 2017, he immediately dropped Mishra, and the leg-spinner never played for India again.
Suryakumar Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav was in sizzling form for three consecutive seasons for Mumbai Indians from the 2018 IPL to 2020. He was also a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket. Despite all this, Virat Kohli continued to exclude Suryakumar from India’s T20I team. Finally, Suryakumar got to make his T20I debut in 2021 and instantly cemented his place in the side.
It makes us wonder how many more runs and more magical knocks Suryakumar Yadav could have produced at the international level had Kohli given SKY a debut much earlier.
Sanju Samson
It remains a big mystery why Sanju Samson didn’t get his opportunities when Kohli was the captain. Samson made his T20I debut in 2015, but wasn’t picked again in the T20I side until 2020, even though he racked up consistent numbers in the IPL. He played only 9 matches in 2020 and 2021, but got a good amount of matches, even made his ODI debut, when Rohit Sharma took charge.
Manish Pandey
It pains the fans that Manish Pandey couldn’t fulfill his talents and potential that was promised when he hit a brilliant maiden ODI century in Sydney against Australia. After that, however, Pandey got to play in only 9 ODI innings in the next three years, all scattered around in different series. When Kohli was the captain, Manish Pandey barely got to play 3 innings in a row to have a decent opporunity to cement his place.
