Why Virat Kohli is the right man for the job
"Kedar Jadhav does it for India" exclaims Anil Kumble on air as India claim their 7th Asia cup title, the most by any team in the tournament history. Rohit Sharma, a destroyer in white-ball cricket, collects the trophy and the team is cock-a-hoop at winning the nail-biting match against Bangladesh in Dubai.
While everyone is euphoric after the win, a new storm brews inside all the cricket fanatics across the globe that Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, should be discharged from his duties. A lot is being written and spoken about his style of leadership and why Rohit is better suited to lead the Indian side in the upcoming World Cup.
To be fair to Kohli, he has the second highest win percentage - 76.47% in ODIs (Min 50 innings), a figure only behind that of the legendary Clive Lloyd–77.71 %. Kohli has won in West Indies, Sri Lanka(Whitewash) and the most prominent one being a 5-1 series win in South Africa, as a result becoming the first Indian captain to win an ODI series in the Rainbow Nation.
Also, India has the highest win percentage(80+) for any team outside its home since 2017. Barring Champions Trophy final, Kohli has just about got everything right in the shorter formats. If there is one person that needs to be credited for the inclusion of the wrist spinners- Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, it is him.
He was very brave when he decided to drop the spin twins- Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Today, India is reaping its rewards, the most recent success story being the Asia Cup performance. Kohli has also played a huge part in grooming KL Rahul as stated by the man himself.
Also, every captain needs a fair amount of time to produce the desired results that are expected of him. Leadership duties were bestowed upon the Delhi lad right before the Champions Trophy. With 3 ODIs before the champions trophy and an unsettled middle order, Kohli decided to get the old warhorse Yuvraj Singh into the scheme of things and the hotshot almost delivered to his captain with his career-best 150 at Cuttack versus England in the 2nd ODI. Things did not go well with Yuvraj at the Champions Trophy and Kohli has been in search for his replacement ever since.
2 years is not a lot of time for any captain to turn things around. MS Dhoni got 4 years to build a team that would go on to be the first team to win a World Cup at home. We all the know what happened to Rahul Dravid when he was given the responsibility in 2005, just two years before the World Cup in the Caribbean. I believe partly that could be the reason we are seeing so much of chopping and changing in the middle order as the team management is desperate to find the right combination and with Dhoni not being the same force as before, it has never been so much difficult for the selectors.
In conclusion, there can be no doubt that the Kohli is the right man to lead for the ODI setup and its time we show some support to the Khel-Ratna awardee to lead us going into the 2019 English Summer.