Former Indian world cup winning captain Kapil Dev has advised outgoing Test captain Virat Kohli to give up his ego and be ready to play under his younrer teammmates. Kapil Dev was amongst the countless members of the cricketing community across the world who congratulated the Indian batsman on his inspiring leadership in the longest format which lasted for over seven years.
Kohli was not “enjoying” the captaincy, Kapil Dev told the Mid-Day. He further said that the mercurial Indian batsman was going through a tough phase ever since giving up the T20 captaincy of the national side back in September 2021 and off-late seemed to be under a lot of pressure. He further said in the same report that Kohli gave up the test captaincy to play without any pressure and hopes to see the flamboyant batsman back among runs.
“I am sure he must have thought hard before taking this important decision. Maybe, he wasn’t enjoying the captaincy,” Kapil Dev said. Citing his own example, he advised Kohli to give up his ego to play under a new, younger captain. This will help him regain his form as well as help the Indian team as well. “We cannot lose Virat, the batsman…no way,” Kapil Dev further said. He said that he had played under younger captains such as Kris Srikanth and Mohammad Azharuddin as well as cited the example of legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar who had played under him.
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The 33-year-old cricketer announced on Saturday that he had stepped down from Test captaincy with immediate effect. Virat was India’s most successful captain in the longest format, winning 40 out of 68 matches with a win percentage of 58.82 making him the third best captain in the history of this format. He also scored 5864 runs at an average of 54.8 as a captain. He had a tough 2021, scoring 531 runs at an average of 28.21 in 11 tests which is an injustice to his batting style and aggressive run-scoring technique. India recently lost the test series in South Africa 2-1. India had won the first test match in Centurion but South Africa came back into the series by winning the second and third test match in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif in a video on “Caught Behind” argued that the “reason” behind Virat quitting captaincy was his alleged feud with BCCI chief and former Indian Captain Saurav Ganguly. Ganguly had, however, tweeted that the Kohli’s decision to quit captaincy was entirely his own and that the BCCI had nothing to do with it.
