Questions Raised About Kohli’s Captaincy In All Three Formats, Gambhir, Saba Karim Express Concern

Do you think Virat shouldn’t be the skipper across all three formats? Gambhir believes he shouldn’t be the skipper in T20’s, Listen to what these ex-cricketers have to say.

Image Source: Getty Images

Indian captain Virat Kohli came under scanner after the recently concluded India-Australia series. India had bundled out for 36 runs in the first Test match where Kohli was the captain, then Ajinkya Rahane took over as captain for the remaining matches. India won the series and the series win ignited a new debate among cricket fans, not just from India, but from around the world. Australian cricketer Shane Lee, the brother of the great Brett Lee was talking in a podcast on Virat Kohli, he said: ‘He is almost revered by the players within the team. They're almost scared to put a foot out of line.’

Now that is the outsider’s perspective. But there is an on-going debate about Kohli captaining in all three formats of the game. One opinion is in favor of making Rohit Sharma the captain in T20I’s due to his record with the Mumbai Indians in IPL, while some have jumped ships to claim that Ajinkya Rahane be made the captain in Tests. A lot of it is credited to the recently concluded Australia Test series. But how serious and important are these claims?

Saba Karim has questions!

Former cricketer and analyst Saba Karim, in an interview to Sportskeeda said: "Is he comfortable leading all three formats? Because this is the year we play the T20 World Cup, we have the ODI World Cup coming up, plus the Test matches are now part of a World Test series.”

He expressed concern over Virat captaining all the three formats. He believes the player must be happy to have this responsibility across all formats. He also said that the selectors must speak with Kohli regarding his issues. "Is he happy with the kind of responsibility that is given to him? If you have this kind of conversation with the captain, I am sure Virat, Ajinkya Rahane and the team management will come up with the right kind of solution to ease the pressure on Virat," Karim said. Even though Karim’s concerns about Kohli’s communication with the selectors is justified, hardly any Kohli fan would agree with him.

Gambhir says that he ‘always had question marks over his T20 captaincy'.

Gautam Gambhir was talking at a Star Sports show when he said that he has never questioned Kohli’s captaincy in Tests and ODI’s, he only has concerns with Kohli’s T20 captaincy. This debate has been going on since India’s poor performance in the T2o WC’s and also Virat;s dismal performance as RCB captain. But it is not for anyone to speculate if India can do better under Virat Kohli or not. Many experts would have opinions about Kohli’s captaincy, but it doesn’t look like Virat would be replaced as a captain of the Indian team.

In Kohli’s defense, Gambhir said: "As any cricketer would say, it is not about hundreds. It is about the runs you can score to make your team win. For Virat Kohli it really does not matter that he has not batted in Australia, obviously, he would have loved to but the most important thing is that he is going to look forward to the England series and he knows how important the series is to qualify for the World Test Championship final,"