Virat Kohli could become ‘too authoritarian’, feels former England cricket captain

Virat Kohli may have impressed everyone with his batting skills but when it comes to his captaincy, former England skipper Mike Brearley believes that he could become ‘too authoritarian’.

Brearley, who captained England in 31 Test matches, said that he loved watching Virat Kohli play but considering his charisma on the field, other players in the side might be scared to give their opinions.

“I love watching him (Kohli) play cricket. He is a very intelligent captain and has tremendous presence on the field,” Brearley told Times of India. “But he has so much charisma, articulacy and authority that there’s a danger of him becoming authoritarian.

“He has got to have the capacity to tell people what to do. But if you become too authoritarian, then you are not open to other points of view. Becoming too influential can also mean that people are scared of giving you the opinion and then you don’t gather in. You need to have 11 captains in the team, just that you have to be the in-charge.”

However, Brearley also said that England skipper Joe Root should learn a thing or two from Kohli and be a bit bolder in his approach while leading the team.

“Having said that, I would add that Joe Root would do well to show some authority the way Kohli does. He would do well to articulate what he is looking for from his team, which I don’t know if he has done enough,” he said.

“Captaincy needs to be fairly intuitive. You can talk to some. You can talk to somebody else and try to figure out what happens in his mind.”

When asked about MS Dhoni, Brearley was all praise for the former India skipper and he hailed Dhoni as as one of the greatest ODI captains he has seen but also said his Test captaincy was not up to the mark.

“I think MS Dhoni was a great ODI captain but I am not very sure whether he was a good Test captain,” said Brearley. “He wasn’t flexible enough with his tactics and I am not sure whether he was involved for long periods of time in the five-day format.

“But in ODIs, he was very good and he did things himself and took authority.”

First Published: Sep 08, 2018 17:18 IST