IND v AUS 2020: 3 glaring captaincy errors made by Virat Kohli in the ODI series so far
India have now lost 5 ODIs on the trot now under Virat Kohli - 3 against New Zealand earlier this year and 2 in the ongoing series against Australia.
The alarm bells are beginning to ring, and the skipper - whose position is genuinely under threat from vice-captain Rohit Sharma - has a lot of questions to answer.
Criticism of Virat Kohli's captaincy is now freely flowing in from all corners of the cricketing fraternity, with various present and former players throwing their weight behind the Mumbai Indians skipper.
And not without reason, since the 32-year-old has made a number of shocking captaincy mistakes over the past few years for India and the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Here are 3 glaring errors that Virat Kohli has made in the ODI series so far.
#3 Virat Kohli has failed to pace India's run-chases properly
Virat Kohli is the master of the run-chase, and we need not even mention his stats in the second innings to justify the same. The Indian skipper is the best in the world at the moment in pacing chases, but he and his team have failed miserably in this regard over the course of the first two ODIs.
In the 1st ODI, chasing a daunting target, India were comfortably poised after reaching their team fifty in just 4.1 overs and taking as many as 20 runs off the first over of the innings delivered by Mitchell Starc. But they collapsed in the rest of the powerplay, and lost 4 wickets by the 13th over to leave a mountain to climb for the lower-middle order.
Virat Kohli, who walked in at No. 3 as always, seemed intent on finishing the chase in 40 overs, and tried to go hell for leather despite his team being in a commanding position. He was eventually dismissed for a run-a-ball 21, cramped for room on the short ball and finding mid-wicket.
The 2nd ODI was the opposite - Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan were more sedate, and Kohli himself took a lot of time to get going. Although he made up for it slightly by accelerating in the middle overs, he left Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja with too much to do.
India seemed to overestimate and underestimate the strength of their lower-middle order in the 1st and 2nd ODI respectively, and the blame has to fall on their captain, who is expected to be the man to take them home in chases.
#2 Virat Kohli's team selection has left a lot to be desired
Over the course of his tenure as Indian captain, Virat Kohli has developed a reputation for being annoyingly trigger-happy. Inconsistencies in selection have marred any team that he has been at the helm of, and a lack of clarity regarding roles in the team has been laid bare often.
India's initial 15-man squad for the ODI series contained two all-rounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, and it was common knowledge that the former was likely to play as a specialist batsman.
Both Virat Kohli and the selectors didn't show any intention of picking more all-rounders later as well - Natarajan and Sanju Samson were added to the ODI squad, but the likes of Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar weren't considered.
None of these players are likely to have made it to the playing XI, but with squad size increasing in the pandemic era, it wouldn't have hurt to have a few backups on the bench.
Moreover, after a whopping defeat in the 1st ODI, many expected Virat Kohli to ring in the changes. But he stuck with the same team, despite Navdeep Saini looking distinctly off-colour after suffering back spasms and Yuzvendra Chahal going for runs against almost every batsman.
#1 Virat Kohli's usage of his frontline bowlers has been abysmal
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are the two frontline bowlers at Virat Kohli's disposal. Both pacers had excellent Indian Premier League campaigns in which they were the strike bowlers of their teams, and were used superbly by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma respectively.
But Virat Kohli has handled them abysmally. In the 1st ODI, it was clear that Shami was the biggest wicket-taking threat, but was frequently taken out of the attack after one over. The result was that he bowled his 10 overs in 6 (yes, 6!) spells, and still managed to pick up 3 wickets while conceding just 59 runs.
In the 2nd ODI, Bumrah was given the new ball and taken out of the attack after just 2 overs in favour of the out-of-form Navdeep Saini. The Mumbai Indians quick bowled his first 5 overs in 4 (yes, 4!) spells in the game, and Australia cruised to yet another commanding start.
Various former and current cricketers have added their pinch of salt to the pot.
"I can't understand the captaincy, to be honest. We kept talking about how important is to take wickets upfront if we have to stop this kind of batting line-up and then you make your premier bowler bowl two overs. Normally, in a One Day game probably there are three spells of 4-3-3 overs. Or probably the maximum is four overs," Gautam Gambhir recently told ESPNCricinfo.
Virat Kohli has made the same mistakes at the death as well - Saini was given the final over in the 2nd ODI despite Shami having an over left, and India have been taken to the cleaners on a number of other occasions in the recent past as well.
Virat Kohli's credentials as an international captain are coming under a clear threat, and even his staunchest fans are beginning to admit that the national team might be safer in different hands.