Virat Kohli is India’s most successful Test captain, leading the team to 33 wins, but when it comes to limited-overs format, some boxes are left to be ticked. In ODIs, Kohli has a win percentage of over 70 percent, while in T20Is, it’s more than 65.
These are pretty impressive stats but if the general consensus is to be believed, they pale in comparison to the fact that under Kohli, India are yet to get their hands on an ICC title despite coming close on several occasions.
Saba Karim on Kohli’s Captaincy
The 2017 Champions Trophy, the 2019 World Cup and the 2021 World Test Championship are the three knockout hurdles where India have stumbled upon.
The next big ICC event for Kohli and his team is the T20 World Cup in the UAE later this year, which former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim feels can make or break Kohli’s future as captain of the team.
With debates of split captaincy refusing to die down, Karim reckons that if Kohli nails to land yet another ICC trophy, he may ponder his future in terms of the captaincy of the team.
“The T20 World Cup that is going to be played later this year will be extremely crucial for Virat Kohli’s captaincy career. The pressure is piling on Virat and he knows that he hasn’t won an ICC trophy yet. So, his aim would be for India to win the T20 World Cup,” Karim told India News Sports.
“If India can lift the trophy, then I believe Kohli will have that breathing space. Maybe he can take stock of the situation then and decide how long he wants to captain the team. His name is coming up in the list of big captains but an ICC title is far from him.”
Karim vouched in favor of split captaincy given how demanding the nature of all three formats are. With all three formats now having a World Cup, India would need a fresh set of ideas and mindset, and expecting everything from Kohli would be too much, believes Karim.
“In all three formats, you have World Championships, and all formats require a different mindset, different resources, different thinking. That’s why I feel that if one captain is leading, it will be too much to expect from him as well. With every format, you need a fresh set of ideas and that is why I feel split captaincy should be the way forward,” he said.
