The Captaincy Debate –Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma ? : Indian cricket team has lost their second successive ODI series. Earlier in the month of February India lost to New Zealand 3-0 in the ODI series in NZ and then now they are staring at another whitewash against host Australia. Virat Kohli’s team India has already lost the 2 match series. The team captained by Kohli looked rudderless, clueless and often short of ideas on how to tackle rampaging Kangaroos. This has led to cricket experts and fans calling for Kohli’s removal as India’s white-ball captain.
Kolhi has looked uninspiring on the field off-late. The role of captain is to guide his team when the chips are down and unfortunately Kohli once again failed miserably in this department. Be it the handling of Jasprit Bumrah or Yuzvendra Chahal – Kohli has left everyone disappointed with his captaincy skills.
Kohli’s performance as ODI captain is going down by the day –
– India failed to beat NZ in Semi-finals of the World Cup and that led to downfall of Kohli as ODI captain
– Virat has lost last 5 matches as ODI captain
– Lost in NZ to home team by 0-3
– Against Australia in ongoing series has lost first 2 matches
– After 2019 World Cup 15 Matches – Lost 8 Matches – Won 6 & 1 NR
Gautam Gambhir also feels Kohli as captain is losing the zing. “I cannot understand Kohli’s captaincy, to be honest. If you stop your premier fast bowler just by bowling two overs upfront with the news, I can’t understand that kind of captaincy. I probably can’t even explain that captaincy. It is not T20 cricket. I probably can’t understand the reason to be honest because that was poor captaincy”, he told Cricinfo.
The Captaincy Debate –Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma – So is it time to make Rohit Sharma India’s White-Ball captain ?
“I have been very vocal about Rohit as a one-day captain. I think he is the best in India as a captain in white-ball cricket. He sees white-ball cricket quicker. I think he reacts better to it”, said former England captain Michael Vaughan to Cricbuzz.
“Virat is not a bad captain, but the discussion here is, who is a better captain and that is Rohit Sharma! And not just better, the difference between them is huge,” Gambhir said on Star Sports show Cricket Connected recently.
What goes big time in favor of Rohit Sharma is his calmness and readiness to react to the different situations according to experts. Rohit has already proved his mettle as IPL Captain by winning record 5 titles for Mumbai Indians. Not even great MS Dhoni could match Rohit in this record.
Not only this Rohit’s record in limited opportunities he has got to captain India is also brilliant and the experts feel he will be able replacement to take on the mettle from Kohli.
Rohit Sharma as India Captain
ODI – 10 Matches – 8 Won & Lost only 2
T20 – 19 Matches – 14 Won Lost only 5
“When we pick players for Indian team basis their IPL performance, then why can’t we pick IPL captains as Team India’s captain? According to me Rohit Sharma should be India’s captain in white-ball”, Gambhir declared recently.
What fans or experts feel will not matter but will matter is what Indian cricket selectors feel about replacing Kohli with Rohit. InsideSport tried reaching out to members of selection committee but no one was ready to give their view-point at this stage. But MSK Prasad, the former of Chairman of Selection Committee said Virat & Rohit both are successful and new selection committee should see how they want to handle the captaincy for future.
“Virat has led the team extremely well for the past few years, with a very high percentage of success across all formats. Having said that, Rohit also holds a good record in the limited opportunities he had in leading the team, new selectors have to see how they have to shape the team for future”, said Prasad.
Without any doubt the India white-ball captaincy debate is hotting up. After ODI’s, if Virat Kohli and team India again falters in T20 series – voices for Rohit as India’s next white-ball captain will further grow.