Why did captain Virat Kohli fail?

Is captain Virat Kohli better than Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni? Despite having a high winning percentage of captain Virat Kohli, the answer is no. Not only with the bat, but Kohli had achieved so many records as a captain. But no one counts him as the best captain of India.

Under his captaincy, India won test series in Australia, England, and South Africa. But the present Australian bowling attack is nothing compared to the Australian bowling attack the team Ganguly faced. There is no one like Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, and Makhaya Ntini in the South African bowling line-up.

Everyone knows how much difficulty Kohli has against James Anderson. Kohli can play gorgeous off drives. But he never faced Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan in test cricket. Kohli can score tons of runs and win test matches outside of India, but you need to consider this factor.

Let us know some of the failures of captain Virat Kohli.

Major Failures of Captain Virat Kohli

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: No ICC Trophies

Virat has captained the Indian team in three ICC competitions, including the Champions Trophy in 2017, the Cricket World Cup in 2019, and the World Test Championship in 2021.

In all of the tournaments, Team India did well. And reaching the finals and semifinal, and the final.

However, a few game-changing mistakes in all tournament’s knockout rounds raised doubts about captain Virat Kohli’s tactics in all formats of the game.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: Lost to Pakistan in ICC Tournament

India never lost against arch-rival Pakistan in the ICC tournament. But under captain Virat Kohli India lost twice against Pakistan.

First, in the final of Champions Trophy 2017, India lost to Pakistan. Virat decided to chase in the down. The Pakistani batting line-up, who had struggled to score even 250 runs throughout the competition, set India a huge target of 339 runs. Pakistan won by 180 runs.

Again in the 2021 T20 world cup, India lost to Pakistan in any world cup match. This time Pakistan beats by ten wickets.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: Lowest Total in test by India

The worst-ever batting performance by India took place On December 19, 2020. After putting the hosts under strain for the first two days of the test, India’s luck ran out on the third day. India was all out for 36 runs in their second innings, with only 21 overs remaining. With this score, India achieves its lowest Test total ever.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: No IPL Trophy

Virat Kohli has captained the Royal Challengers Bangalore for over ten seasons, but how many trophies has he won?
He never won an IPl trophy. While Rohit Sharma had won almost half of the IPL seasons as captain, MSD had guided CSK to the grand league playoffs on every occasion and had also lifted the IPL Trophy four times.

As a result, many supporters regard Virat Kohli as being underrated in comparison to Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni.
Captain Virat Kohli has thus far failed to do so. He had had a good team to play in IPL. But Kohli is not a natural leader like Saurav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, or Rohit Sharma when it comes to leadership.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: Lack of Support for the Players

Captain Virat Kohli is once again well behind MS Dhoni and Saurav Ganguly. A true leader believes in his team and does not abandon them after a few setbacks. Virat Kohli had started more than 30 test matches with a different playing lineup.

Virat Kohli opted to say his goodbyes to Ambati Rayadu after one poor series. Despite being the best bowler in the tournament in terms of average, Mohammad Shami was not selected for the CWC 2019 semifinal.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: Team Building

As captain both, Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni made a good team. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, and Zaheer Khan would not have played even 100 international matches if Ganguly had not supported them.

Dhoni had followed in Ganguly’s footsteps. We claim that we have the finest fielding side in the world because Dhoni took some hushed decisions. Also, we would not be debating Virat Kohli vs. Sachin Tendulkar because Virat Kohli was about to drop from test cricket in 2012.

But captain Virat Kohli always had a bunch of good players but never had a good team. He does not trust anyone except himself and Ravindra Jadeja. The biggest lack in his team-building process is, he never gives any player to settle down in the playing eleven.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: In the Opening Position

Let’s find out how many opening pare had played during captain Virat Kohli’s tenour. In test cricket, there was Murali Vijay-Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma-Kl Rahul, Rohit Sharma-Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma-Shubman Gill, and Prithvi Shaw also. Except for Rohit Sharma, who can claim that he conforms in the playing eleven.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: In the Middle-Order

Cheteshwar Pujara is one of the most consistent number three in test cricket. He had already played 90 test matches. But Pujara still faces a lot of questions about batting. During the 2016 West Indies trip, questions ask Pujara’s scoring rate. In recent England, tour again the question came about his commitment. Pujara must not feel confident under captain Virat Kohli.

What happens with Karun Nair? No one knows why captain Virat Kohli never looks back at Karun Nair. In 2016, at Mohali Test against England, he received his first Test cap. He became India’s second triple-centurion after Virender Sehwag in his third Test. Nair is only the third man in the history of the game to convert a maiden Test tonne into a triple.

But after that, he had played only three tests for India. Karun Nair got all the potential the become a long-serving middle-order batsman for India. But captain Virat Kohli just ignored him and given chance to a new player like Hanuma Vihari.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: In ODI

The biggest question arises during captain Virat Kohli. After number three, no one knows who will be the number four, five, or six.
Captain Virat Kohli had plenty of chances to exploit our team’s biggest weakness, the number four batting hole.
Rather than endorsing a single-player, Virat Kohli chose to test a batsman drop him after a few games, try another, drop him as well, and repeat the process with virtually every other batsman entrusted with the number 4 slot.

Everyone knows that Ambati Rayudu will play at number four in the 2019 world cup. But Vijay Sankar came into the team. Batsmen like Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson did not get enough chances to play.

The same thing happens with KL Rahul also. In some matches, he plays an opener, and after a few matches, he is playing in the middle-order. Some time Rishabh Pant is doing wicket-keeping, and in some matches, KL Rahul is doing wicket-keeping. You can say it is a total mess-up.

Failures of Captain Virat Kohli: In the Bowling

Captain Virat Kohli always prefers Jadeja rather than Ashwin. Although, Ashwin got much better bowling numbers. The logic to choose Jadeja ahead of Ashwin is that Jadeja is a better batsman and the fielding quality. Yes, Jadeja is the best fielder on the Indian team. But Ashwin had better batting records in test cricket. He had proved his batting skills in all situations.

Where is Kuldeep Yadav? This question comes automatically. Kuldeep Yadav could have been one of the assets of India cricket. He lost his form. That is quite normal for a player. Here the role of a captain is crucial. But no one can say captain Virat Kohli gives support to Kuldeep Yadav.

But when it has come to Hardik Pandiya, then captain Virat Kohli is always behind him.