Former Indian cricket team selector Kiran More said that people have mistreated Virat Kohli in an unfair manner who accomplishments not only as a player but even as a captain – the most successful skipper.
Kiran More backs Virat
In the span of four months, Kohli has relieved himself from leading the Indian team from all formats. First, he stepped down from T20I captaincy at the conclusion of the World T20 event in November last year.
A day after India lost the Test series to South Africa 1-2, Kohli took to his official Twitter handle to announce his decision to quit the Test captaincy.
“The way he has left is a bit sad. The way people have treated him, and I am not talking of the BCCI, and criticised him was not fair. He has played a lot of cricket, he has done well for India. The way he played any form of cricket, he had that quality. He always showed the character that he wanted to win,” More told News18.
“Let’s not forget he is a World Cup winner (2011). He has got 70 international hundreds and is a special player. I am disappointed with the way people were talking about him and the way his captaincy was criticised. For me, he is a legend. Performance-wise, we cannot touch him. I am not worried about him stepping down from T20 or ODI captaincy. That is part of life. The way people were criticising him was not good.”
Kohli led India in 68 Tests, 95 ODIs, and 50 T20 International matches and won a total of 135 games across all formats.
“This always happens. People have to come together and regroup. That’s the job of Rahul Dravid and the selectors. They are matured, cricketers. It is not going to be easy and will take time for the Indian team to settle down. Test cricket is not easy, no matter what. You play Test cricket with your heart. He’s got to perform. Kohli’s 79 and 29 in Cape Town were like 150 on a difficult pitch,” said More.
“It is not easy to leave captaincy. He was the captain in all three formats. He must have decided to focus on his batting and win matches for the country. He has always played freely to score 70 international hundreds. The time comes in every captain’s life to move on. Every captain feels it and perhaps he has felt it now.”
Virat Kohli who is currently playing 3 ODI match series under KL Rahul‘s captaincy scored 51 runs in the first ODI and got duck in the second ODI.
