Virat Kohli needs no introduction. He is one of the stalwarts of Indian cricket. With his extraordinary batting finesse, he has scored more than 25000 international runs across formats. However, he was put under scrutiny many times when he was not delivering with the bat and also during his captaincy days.
In the RCB Podcast Season 2, Virat Kohli stated that he has been considered as a failed captain. “Look, you play to win tournaments. I captained in Champions Trophy 2017 (reached the final), 2019 World Cup (reached the semifinal), I captained in World Test Championship (reached the final), and T20 World Cup in 2021 (failed to qualify for the knockouts). After three (four) ICC tournaments, I was considered as a failed captain,” said Kohli.
“I never judged myself from that point of view; what we ended up achieving as a team and as a cultural change that always going to be a matter of pride for me.
“A tournament happens for a certain period of time but a culture happens over a long period of time and for that you need consistency for that you need more characters than just winning a tournament.”
“I won a World Cup as a player. I won the Champions Trophy as a player. I have been part of the team that has won five Test maces. If you look at that point of view there have been people, who have never won a World Cup,” he added.
Reacting to the statements made by Virat Kohli, former England cricketer Monty Panesar said, "Unfortunately, that’s the pressure of being captain of India. No one remembers second or third-place teams. We always remember winners of ICC tournaments."
Kohli also talked about the 2011 World Cup. He said he was fortunate enough to be part of the Indian team.
“To be honest, I was lucky enough to be part of that 2011 team. And what led to my selection was also amazing because I had a great run of great scores, and I ended up being with the team.
Kohli has represented the Indian cricket team in 106 Tests, 271 ODIs, 115 T20Is and scored more than 25000 international runs.