Virat Kohli, on Saturday, left the cricket world in shock after he stepped down as captain of India’s Test team with immediate effect. The big announcement came after a day of losing the 3-match Test series to South Africa 2-1 with a seven-wicket loss in Cape Town.
In his tweet, Kohli said: “It’s been 7 years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance everyday to take the team in the right direction. I’ve done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test captain of India, it’s now. There have been many ups and also some downs along the journey, but never has there been a lack of effort or lack of belief. I have always believed in giving my 120 per cent in everything I do, and if I can’t do that, I know it’s not the right thing to do. I have absolute clarity in my heart and I cannot be dishonest to my team.”
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) January 15, 2022
Virat replaced MS Dhoni as the Test skipper in 2015 and since then he emerged out as the most successful Test skipper of India. Virat Kohli’s stint as the Test captain was largely successful as he took the Indian cricket team to number 1 position in the ICC rankings and registered some memorable overseas victories.
If we go by the numbers, Virat was India’s best captain by a distance, with 40 wins from 68 games. Dhoni (27 wins from 60 matches) and Ganguly (21 wins out of 49) are next on the list.
Meanwhile, ever since the announcement came out, social media has been buzzing with reactions from cricket lovers. From cricketers, experts and fans, everyone is hailing the legacy of Virat Kohli as the Test skipper.
Among many, Indian politician Sanjay Jha also took to his Twitter and poured his emotions out for Virat Kohli. In his Tweet, Sanjay Jha hailed Virat as the most successful captain across all formats. He also rated Virat Kohli above Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest Indian cricketer India has ever produced. He wrote:
“As India’s most successful captain across all formats, series wins abroad, great in crucial run-chases , exceptional fielder, and a fantastic batsman, I rate Virat Kohli above my favorite Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest Indian cricketer India has produced. @imVkohli”
Here, check out the Tweet:
As India’s most successful captain across all formats, series wins abroad, great in crucial run-chases , exceptional fielder, and a fantastic batsman, I rate Virat Kohli above my favorite Sachin Tendulkar as the greatest Indian cricketer India has produced. @imVkohli
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) January 16, 2022
Well, while the fans respected Sanjay’s emotions, but the tweet didn’t go down well with the fans of Sachin Tendulkar, who are now trolling Jha left, right, and center.
Here, check out the reactions of Sachin’s fans to this:
Did The GREATEST @sachin_rt have the likes of Dhoni, Rohit, Dhawan, Gambhir, Viru, Yuvraj, Raina, R Jadeja (etc, amongst whom, everyone was a match winner) for his 1st 10 years of his career ?? did he have any dependable partner on other side to fight some fierce battles?
2/n— अभय (@RAMbhaktAJ) January 16, 2022
u can rate whatever u want..but kapil /sachin are the greatest cricketer of India ..Kohli is definitely best for lasr decade but sachin/kapil ruled fir decades… captaincy wise sachin was not good but that point of time india was one man team and that one man was “sachin”
— piyush shukla (@piyush66501861) January 16, 2022
Kapil Dev & MS Dhoni are the greatest ever.All rounders and game changers…Sachin the most loved ,Gavaskar probably 1st superstar, Ganguly game changing captain. Dravid the wall,spin quartet.Kohli needs to come back to his earlier prolific scoring to end like Sachin.
— Shashikanth Shetty (@Shashik53357588) January 16, 2022
Your so called greatest Indian cricketer couldn’t won any ICC trophy.
Forget about ICC trophy couldn’t even won IPL
— ??˥ᴉHoW ∀ɹʇoHƖɐW?? मोहिल मल्होत्रा ?? (@TrulyMM) January 16, 2022
But see the Virat was given by Saurabh and Dhoni. Sachin had average players under him, excèpt a couple of them.
— S Ravichandran (@ravi_181c) January 16, 2022
You can’t compare different eras ! Sachin also had 150+ ODI wickets , more 5fers than legendary Shane Warne.
Kohli is great no doubt , but you can’t compare him to Sachin.— Abhik (@Abhik07997450) January 16, 2022
SACHIN WAS A 1 MAN ARMY, IN THE 90s he was playing in an Era of match fixing and winning games single handedly, no other cricketer can achieve what @sachin_rt did.. pls do not compare anyone with SACHIN…
— Danish Ali (@Danish222) January 16, 2022
He can never achieve what Sachin has achieve in cricket. As for his attitude he doesn’t deserve to be in the Indian team. It seems he always has a score to settle with the crowd. Ashamed of his actions everytime he indulges with the crowd
— Rahul Narang (@narangsthegreat) January 16, 2022
Also Read: Sourav Ganguly Finally Tweeted A Message For Virat Kohli
