3 reasons why Virat Kohli's captaincy decision could hurt India
In less than two months' time, someone not named Virat Kohli will captain India in T20I cricket. Kohli has announced that he will renounce the T20I captaincy post the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the UAE next month.
The decision didn't come as a complete shock, since reports in certain quarters last week had suggested that Kohli was pondering stepping down from captaincy in white-ball cricket. While the 32-year-old has relinquished his reins only in the shortest format, fans of the Indian cricket team saw this coming in a way.
However, that doesn't mean that India as a team will find it easy to move on from their current T20I skipper. Here are three reasons why Virat Kohli's decision could hurt India.
Here's a list of all T20 World Cup winners from 2007 to 2016.
#3 Leadership has always elevated Virat Kohli's batting
Since making his India debut, Virat Kohli has played 440 matches across all formats. He has captained the side in 205 of these games, and his numbers as a leader are far superior to those as a player.
Kohli averages 60.95 as a captain with 41 hundreds, as opposed to 49.64 with 29 hundreds as a player. There's no doubt that leadership has elevated the 32-year-old's game, with him having reached an almost immortal level of batsmanship with added responsibility on his shoulders.
Virat Kohli's batting has waned a touch over the last two years, and being without the captaincy might push his performances even lower. While he will continue to lead the team in two formats and be part of the leadership group in T20Is, a slight dip in numbers isn't unimaginable - something that India can't afford from arguably their best batsman.
#2 Virat Kohli's aggression as captain will be missed
Virat Kohli's tactics and team selection have often come under question but he brings a lot of unique attributes to the captaincy table. His passion and aggression have helped India script many famous victories, with his take-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude working for the Men in Blue frequently.
While his replacement will have good qualities of his own, Virat Kohli's aggression as captain will be missed. The current Indian team has been molded in Kohli's philosophy, with players like Mohammed Siraj taking after the captain's attitude on the field.
For example, Rohit Sharma is a world-class captain and has already led India in 19 T20Is. And although he is a proven leader who is calm and composed, he might not be able to get the most out of the team immediately. Kohli's aggressive style of leadership is controversial, but there's no doubting that it produces results very often.
#1 The next T20 World Cup is only one year away
The 2021 T20 World Cup is the first edition of the marquee ICC event since 2016, with the conduction of the Champions Trophy and the COVID-19 pandemic ensuring that two tournaments weren't conducted. To make up for the same, the ICC announced that the next edition of the T20 World Cup will be held as early as 2022.
If Virat Kohli steps down in November, will India's players have enough time to accustom themselves to their new captain, who will undoubtedly have a few strategies and plans of his own? Kohli will still be in the thick of things, of course, but someone like Rohit has a completely different way of approaching captaincy.
With the 2022 IPL and other international engagements scheduled to happen between the two editions of the T20 World Cup, India may not have sufficient international matches to get their plans in order. This problem is amplified by the fact that the 2022 T20 World Cup will take place in Australia, where the conditions are a completely different kettle of fish to other venues in the world.
India will have only a few months to transition from Virat Kohli to a new captain, and that might prove to be their undoing irrespective of how they perform in this year's T20 World Cup.