India's captaincy debate across formats isn't ending any time soon and keeps finding fire with every big occurrence. India's heavy 227-run defeat against England meant the skipper Virat Kohli was in the line of fire again as he has now lost four matches in a row leading the side in the longest format.
Kohli, who led India in the lone Test match that they lost in the recent series against Australia, has suddenly lost all the matches he has captained in the last year. The Indian team under him lost the two Tests in and against New Zealand in February last year, after which he led them unsuccessfully again in the Adelaide Test and now the fourth one, where the visiting England side beat them comprehensively in the first Test in Chennai.
Ajinkya Rahane, who led the Indian team in his absence, still has an unbeaten record as the captain of the Test side as he has led the team in five matches and India won four out of them, and one was the drawn game at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The debate of captaincy enraged on the micro-blogging site Twitter again after Tuesday's loss. While many users suggested that Virat was the one who built this team, the captaincy debate shouldn't happen in the first place just because Rahane helped India win in Australia. While many other users mentioned that if indeed India is losing like that under Virat's leadership, there's something wrong.
Here are some of the reactions:
@bhogleharsha ,why we are not talking about Kohli’s leadership skills? There is a lot missing there , I mean crushing defeat is not sign of healthy captaincy.
— Siddharth Kaushal (@KaushalSid) February 9, 2021
Now give the captaincy to @ajinkyarahane88 and see the magic again #INDvENG #BCCI @imVkohli
— Dnyaneshwar Alwe (@DnyaneshwarAlw2) February 9, 2021
Most people like rahane calmness over Kohli aggression...and this personal bias call for captaincy change.... but on cricketing merits Kohli is still a good captain and rahane has to prove his batting first
— Cricguruuu (@cricguruuu) February 9, 2021
Rahane on Rahane on His own Kohli's Captaincy Captaincy pic.twitter.com/cJim2y4sWU
— Aalok (@Chuckle_Some2) February 9, 2021
lts time we have split captaincy,Test-Rahane. one day and T20 kohli,team changes must be there.
— prit (@PritSarka) February 9, 2021
REMOVE @imVkohli from Captaincy...
— DANISH Rizvi (@DANISHRizvii) February 9, 2021
Clearly India in not top any format on icc ranking now
And when he was given captaincy India was top in 2 format and 2nd in 3rd.
Still you need proof of under performace.
He can be good batsman but not captain similar to Sachin.
— Santosh Singh (@SantoshDSSqr) February 9, 2021
Rahane failed Rohit failed So many no balls Most Important England fielding was exceptional in 1st innings
Dumb fellows on Twitter blaming Kohli's Test Captaincy I mean this fellow even have iota of brain ? Not very long this fellows will blame Kohli captaincy for climate change
— Sai (@akakrcb6) February 9, 2021
Captaincy matters. Preparations matter. Experience matters. Humility matters.#INDvENG
— Harish Rao (@simpleharish) February 9, 2021
Fans Talking about their favorite Player Captaincy Records.... #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/9WaE4JJLbN
— ViNo MSD (@killerViNo07) February 9, 2021
Kohli's International Captaincy record in last one year :
L L L L L L L W W W L L L#INDvENG
— ` (@FourOverthrows) February 9, 2021
Pic 1 : Rahane under Virat captaincy pic 2 : Rahane under his captaincy #EngvsInd pic.twitter.com/gyup8F2SYK
— Hashtag_memewala (@H7tym) February 9, 2021