Sunday, 05 January 2025
Sunday, 05 January 2025
Virat Kohli took over as India’s Test captain in 2014 after M.S. Dhoni announced his retirement from the longest format. Since then, Captain Kohli led India in red-ball cricket 68 times, winning 40 games, 24 at home and 15 away from home. Only 18 games in the Kohli era ended up in Indian losses.
In comparison to Kohli, Rohit Sharma as India’s Test captain has seen 12 wins and three draws along with nine losses in 24 games. While Rohit Sharma himself hasn’t averaged much in Tests with 30.58, Virat Kohli’s form has seen a significant dip – and that isn’t restricted to the number of three-figure scores India’s No.4 has under Sharma’s captaincy.
Breaking down Kohli’s stats in terms of the captains he has played under, Kohli, under MSD, played 30 matches scoring 1,960 runs at an average of 40 with 10 half-centuries and 6 centuries including a knock of 169 in Dhoni’s final Test in Melbourne in 2014, where Kohli took down the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Josh Hazlewood.
Taking over as India’s captain for the next eight years, Kohli went hammer and tongs against every opposition, piling on runs and records for fun.
From 2014 to 2022, Virat Kohli was widely regarded as the best batter across formats, taking an aggressive approach to both his batting and captaincy, making it clear that India will look to take 20 wickets at every game.
In 68 Tests as India’s captain, Kohli scored a staggering 5846 runs averaging 54.80 with 20 tons and 18 fifty-plus scores. This included his career-best knock of 254* against South Africa in Pune in 2019.
How does Kohli’s stats rank up against the best Test captains? While Kohli is undoubtedly India’s best-ever red-ball captain, he is also fourth on the list of captains with most Test runs as captain, with Graeme Smith’s 8,659 runs in 109 matches, Allan Border’s tally of 6,623 runs in 93 games and Ricky Ponting’s 6,542 runs as Australia's captain in 77 games.
While Smith averaged 47.84, Border at 50.95 and Ponting at 51.51, Kohli’s batting supremacy while being India’s captain was clear to see with his average of 54.80, showing his run tally could have been more than the three aforementioned players who captained more Tests than Kohli.
While Kohli hasn’t been doing miserably from the standard of average batters in the cricketing world, his stats under Rohit Sharma has been miles short of what he has proven to be capable of.
With just 1,094 runs in 19 games under Rohit Sharma, Kohli has a measly average of 34.32 and his 186 against the Kangaroos in Ahmedabad in 2023 being the only significant score while Rohit was the captain.
The only other inning was a 121-run knock in West Indies in a game that saw India walk all over their Caribbean hosts.
Is Virat Kohli’s form linked to his captaincy? This is a question that the selectors should have asked when they decided to remove Kohli as India’s captain across formats.
Virat’s form may or may not be linked to him being the Indian captain, but stats clearly show that his performances are significantly different when he is captain and when he is not.
But there are other issues as well, Virat’s love for fiddling around with balls outside the off stump has been proven to be his downfall.
Every time he has been dismissed in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, it has been him getting caught behind or in the slips.
How long can Virat keep this up? With Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement and Rohit Sharma’s looming at large, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that Kohli’s Test days are also numbered.
But he still is one of India’s best batters. What can be done?
It seems too far gone for the BCCI to admit they were wrong in removing Virat as the Test match captain, and it is unlikely that the two parties will come to common ground.
Kohli is fit enough and could potentially play through the next World Test Championship cycle but that isn’t a given.
While India look to bring more youngsters into the fold, they will have a tough time replacing their Test No 4 batter an issue India have also had with white-ball cricket since before the 2015 World Cup.
Ravi Shastri, India’s former coach, has been one of the most vocal experts during the ongoing Test series.
Speaking about Kohli’s longevity Shastri said: “No, I think Virat Kohli will play, Virat will play for some time, forget the way he got out today. I think he will play for 3 or 4 more years. As far as Rohit is concerned, it’s a call.”
It will be interesting to see how it goes after the Sydney Test ends. India could have a completely different look when they play in white next. Will Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hang around till then? Time will tell.
