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5 rookie mistakes that captain Virat Kohli could avoid

Virat Kohli still has a lot to learn as a captain

‘Virat Kohli is India’s most popular sportsperson’ – this is a statement that could win the International Stating the Obvious Competition by a long distance. A man who is known for his fierce pride in cricket, his passion and most importantly, a bull-headed stubbornness to not give up, Virat Kohli has come up by leaps and bounds over the last half a decade. As expected, captaincy followed his success and stardom and despite an early, heart-wrenching loss in Australia, he has one of the most impressive captaincy records in the last few years.

The start to Virat’s captaincy career was a little shaky, as India lost two and played out draws in two more of the first four Tests. In both those losses, India had a sniff at victory. Kohli’s career as India’s skipper has taken off since then. He won a series in Sri Lanka, India bouncing back to win 2-1, and won in West Indies 2-0 and is currently on an unbeaten streak of 16 matches, which puts him in third place, in terms of longest unbeaten streaks by an Indian Test captain.

Kohli has won 12 Tests, lost 2 and drawn 6 in 20 matches as captain and is known for his aggression and flamboyance. Kohli isn’t in the Dhoni or Dravid mould of captaincy. He is more in the Ganguly mode of captaincy, wearing his heart on his sleeves and playing excited and excitable cricket. While some of his inspired moves in the recent India-England Test series were praised, especially the way Kohli handled his bowlers and went for some aggressive field placements when India were on top, commentators also criticised him for inevitable rookie mistakes that allowed the game to drift away from India’s grasp. 

In the long run, he will learn from these errors in judgment, and he has to feel fortunate most of his mistakes didn’t result in losses. That could be scarring and scary. But, Kohli will need to do a better job when he is on away tours where the smallest tactical mistake can make the difference between winning and losing. Here are five examples of captaincy from the India-England series which surprised cricket pundits in a negative way.

Disclaimer: Mind you, these are early days in his captaincy, and he has someone of Anil Kumble’s calibre speaking over his shoulder, which means he’ll only get better with time.

#1 Staggered slips

AJinkya Rahane fielding.jpg
India’s slip cordon, barring Ajinkya Rahane, isn’t the safest in the world

This is in vogue in modern day Test cricket, and Kohli employs them too. Kohli gives the impression of someone ever ready to go for the kill. But many a time, in the recent series, with a ball swinging and with his pacers, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami creating chances, he didn’t quite go for the jugular. 

In many cases, Kohli went for the unconventional slips, the second slip without a first slip. Firstly, there is no logical sense behind avoiding the first slip and keeping the second slip in Tests where batsmen are more likely to get a fine edge than slash hard and get an edge to second slip. 

Secondly, Indian wicket-keepers don’t dive athletically a la Quinton de Kock or Matthew Wade. India’s slip cordon, barring Ajinkya Rahane, isn’t the safest in the world. That means touch chances between the keeper and the second slip are as good as gone. The psychological impact on the bowler of such a chance gone waste is much deeper too!

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