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Virat Kohli quits as India Test captain

virat kohli

Kohli stepped down from Test captaincy as the most successful skipper in the longest format of the game for India and fourth overall, reports Asian Lite News

A day after India lost the series 1-2 to South Africa with a seven-wicket defeat at Cape Town, Virat Kohli has stepped down as the Test captain.

Kohli, who first captained India at the Adelaide Test in 2014 against Australia, was appointed to the full-time role after MS Dhoni announced his retirement from the format ahead of the fourth Test at Sydney in January 2015. It also means that the Cape Town Test was the last match of Kohli as India captain.

“It’s been 7 years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance everyday to take the team in the right direction. I’ve done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India, it’s now. There have been many ups and also some downs along the journey, but never has there been a lack of effort or lack of belief,” said Kohli in his statement posted on his social media accounts on Saturday.

Kohli stepped down from Test captaincy as the most successful skipper in the longest format of the game for India and fourth overall. Under his time as the captain, India played 68 Tests, winning 40, losing 17 and drawing 11 matches, having a win percentage of 58.82 while registering memorable wins in overseas and home conditions.

“I have always believed in giving my 120 percent in everything I do, and if I can’t do that, I know it’s not the right thing to do. I have absolute clarity in my heart and I cannot be dishonest to my team. I want to thank the BCCI for giving me the opportunity to lead my country for such a long period of time and more importantly to all the teammates who bought into the vision I had for the team from day one and never gave up in any situation. You guys have made this journey so memorable and beautiful,” added Kohli.

The most notable victories from the time under Kohli will be the 2018/19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy win, where India won a Test series in Australia for the first time and leading 2-1 in England in the 2021 series apart from reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Southampton in the same year. He also took the Indian team to the number one ranking in Tests apart from overseeing the development of the pace-attack reaching a world-class level and fitness being given prime importance.

“To Ravi Bhai and the support group who were the engine behind this vehicle that moved us upwards in Test Cricket consistently, you all have played a massive role in bringing this vision to life. Lastly, a big thank you to MS Dhoni who believed in me as a Captain and found me to be an able individual who could take Indian Cricket forward,” concluded the 33-year-old Kohli.

In September 2021, Kohli had announced that he would be leaving the T20I captaincy after the Men’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. He had also stepped down as the captain of IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after the completion of the second half of the tournament in the UAE. Two months later, in December, Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain.

It will be interesting to see who becomes the next Test captain of India. The team’s next Test assignment will be against Sri Lanka in a two-match series at home in February-March.

ALSO READ: BCCI thanks India’s most successful Test captain

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What Went Wrong With Men in Blue?

(Image Source_IANS) (4)

Cricket is very much of a mind game and with New Zealand taking the early initiative, the Indian team looked like a side that had got lost in a maze, writes Yajurvindra Singh

The defeat against Pakistan and New Zealand in the T20 cricket World Cup has brought about a reality check for Indian cricket. The disappointment was more in the minds of the millions of Indian cricket followers, who had been made to think that Indian cricket was better than it’s ever been before. The superstars who adorn the Indian colours are professionals who are fitter and more skillful than the Indian cricketers of yore.

The Indian economy, a decade ago, went through the same euphoria of “India shining” and a feeling that intellectually we are the rising brains who will shortly control the world. A positive approach and attitude is great to get one to believe in themselves. However, to understand one’s ability and capability is what finally prevails in order to be successful.

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Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Ravi Shastri, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath and loads of former cricketers were successful not because they could play all the shots in the book but because they knew when to do so. In cricket, the ability to apply ones game to the prevailing conditions and to play accordingly is half the battle won. The basis to do so is naturally for the team’s benefit and this is an area where, one feels, the present Indian cricketers are lacking.

A cricketer reaches the highest level by sheer cricketing common sense. Similarly, as in all the other professions, a cricketer acquires or is born with a natural cricketing instinct, based on their experiences and capabilities. The great Garry Sobers, Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Vinoo Mankad may not have got a distinction as students in academics but on the cricket field they were masters in the way they thought and analysed the situation. Their “cricketing brains” was what made them match winners. One feels that the element of thinking for themselves seems to have disappeared in most of the present-day cricketers.

One can blame it on the progress made by technology, technical tools and professional, certified and accomplished coaches who draw up plans to implement the strategy. However, one feels that many cricketers are getting confused between their natural thought process and the roles that have been assigned to them.

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The Indian cricketers seem to be prime examples of this. They have played some wonderful cricket in the last few years. However, they have succumbed to pressure when most required and especially in an ICC-organised World championship. The burden of responsibility of winning a major cup seems to weigh on the Indian cricketers to such an extent that their eagerness and anxiety is driving them to despair.

An Indian cricketer at present is a well-paid professional. Most of them have a rags-to-riches tale to relay. This, one feels, makes them an easy target for the famous corporate jargon “value for money” and millions of their fans and followers expect them to live up to it. The hopes and wishes of the fan following puts on additional pressure on the cricketer who understands the bricks-bats and scrutiny they would receive if they fail.

India’s defeat against Pakistan was a deadly blow to the team’s morale. A billion Indians see this not as a sport but as a battle of supremacy. The attack on Md. Shami for his below-par performance in the match was another of the immature reactions that one sees every time an Indian cricket team fails. One hoped that the Indian side would have been strong enough to put themselves mentally past the loss and the criticism. Unfortunately, each one of them was deeply affected by it and one could feel the tension and uncertainty when they took to the field to bat and bowl against New Zealand.

Cricket is very much of a mind game and with New Zealand taking the early initiative, the Indian team looked like a side that had got lost in a maze.

India does still stand a mathematical chance of qualifying for the semifinals but that would depend solely on them winning against Scotland and Namibia by a large margin and New Zealand losing their match against Afghanistan.

The regular Indian defeats on a world cup platform in the last seven years remind one of the stigma that got attached to the South African side of being “chokers”. India are showing signs of this symptom especially in the way their giant superstar batters seem to collapse when most required.

The perennial question which is being asked by one and all is, “What went wrong with the Indian side”?

India boasts of being able to field three International sides and have the world’s leading batters and bowlers, hence it could not be the quality and skills of their players.

Was it the six months of being away from home, playing cricket and living in a bio-bubble that made them homesick and depressed? The claustrophobic atmosphere of being day and night with each other?

The appointment of MS Dhoni as a mentor? This could have been seen as a message that the BCCI were not happy with the existing think-tank.

Was it the timing of Virat Kohli’s announcement of stepping down from the T20 Indian captaincy after the World Cup, as well as the coach and support staff stepping down?

Was it the selection of the playing eleven? This is always a point to ponder over when a team loses. However, the combination could always be debatable. One never knows.

All this could have had a significant effect in the dressing room.

Diwali is an Indian festival which also symbolises the victory of light over darkness. The Indian team requires all the blessings and prayers to give them that light of hope.

In T20 cricket one never knows till the last ball is bowled!

(Yajurvindra Singh is a former India cricketer)

ALSO READ: BCCI president Ganguly steps down from ATK

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Current team is probably best in the history: Gavaskar

“What struck me most was how biased the umpiring was. We had heard stories of the English umpires being the best, but what we saw in the three Test matches was umpiring calls that always went in favour of the home team”…India’s greatest Test batsman Sunil Gavaskar interacts with Sandeep Bamzai

Fifty summers ago, when India under Ajit Wadekar’s stewardship landed in England and won their first Test series against the Old Enemy as it were, young guns Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Eknath Solkar, Ashok Mankad and Abid Ali were at the vanguard of Vijay Merchant’s change agent experiment.

England under Ray Illingworth had a finely-balanced team, which had vanquished Australia 2-0 to win the Ashes Down Under. India were certainly not expected to win against an all-conquering English side with a fast bowling attack led by John Snow, who had blitzed OZ with 31 wickets. Geoff Boycott and John Edrich scored heavily for England.

Yet, India, after drawing the first two Tests, went on to win using Bhagwat Chandrasekhar’s fast googlies at the Oval. Skipper Wadekar himself along with Gavaskar scored most of the runs in that series. To relive some of those memories, Sandeep Bamzai spoke to India’s greatest Test batsman SMG or Sunny Gavaskar, who now wears a commentator’s hat.

Sunil Gavaskar

Excerpts from the interview:

Memories of the 1971 tour with a majority of the players being young like yourself, and your first exposure to an English summer and the characters on that tour like ‘Kaka’ (Ashok Mankad) etc…

My first tour to England was 50 years back and we were just coming after beating the West Indies, so we were a pretty confident bunch. It was a great blend of youth and experience and it was a fun tour. Because there were plenty of matches against the County teams, we got to see pretty much the whole of England and some tourist places like the St Paul’s Cathedral, the London Zoo, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and much else. Being on a tight budget of one pound a day, we couldn’t enjoy the fine dining experience but had to be content with the fast-food outlets.

You have often said that your best Test innings remains the fifty in adverse conditions against English seamers. Describe the conditions and the face-off with John Snow as well on that tour…

Yes, that half-century is my best effort in Test cricket. We played on a green wicket for the first time. We couldn’t distinguish the pitch from the rest of the outfield from our changing room on the upper floor. The overcast conditions meant that the grass didn’t dry out and in the slight drizzle, the umpires didn’t take players off the field. The light rain was freshening up the pitch and the ball was swinging and bouncing too. That’s why it’s my best innings in Test cricket.

Pic credits IANS

A hitherto unknown aspect of that tour, something that struck you about the dogged English team or the backdrop of the English system?

What struck me most was how biased the umpiring was. We had heard stories of the English umpires being the best, but what we saw in the three Test matches was umpiring calls that always went in favour of the home team. Having said that, when we played against the County sides, the English umpires, who were all former first class players, were very good and most encouraging if you went to them for any advice after the day’s play. You could learn so much from them.

Why did it go so wrong on the following tour of 1974 when we got hammered?

A: In 1974, we played in the first half of the English summer when the pitches and the bowlers were fresh and so our batting couldn’t contribute much, while our spinners struggled to grip the ball in the cold conditions.

The 1983 World Cup Opus.(photo:IANSLIFE)

What do you think of the current team and its chances in the ongoing five Test series against England?

This current team is probably the best ever in the history of Indian cricket. Only the teams from 1983 to 1986 had a similar kind of depth and balance. This team though is better because they have beaten Australia in their own conditions recently and have more game changers with both bat and ball.

If the sun is out, they should win the series easily and if there are some overcast days, then too they should win but may lose the odd Test.

What did we do wrong in the WTC final — to play no seam bowler, to play two spinners and get the team composition wrong in overcast conditions?

The conditions during the WTC final were what New Zealand are used to playing in their country, so they adapted quicker than the Indians. At the end, there was very little to choose between the two teams.

Why can’t Indian batsmen play the moving ball on English wickets? What are the issues that the batsmen face?

It’s not easy for anybody to play the seaming ball in England, even for the English batsmen. So one can’t fault the Indian batsmen. Playing closer to the body and playing the ball as late as possible will certainly make a difference to their scores.

Kohli’s India team

This team can pick up the pieces very quickly as it showed in Australia, but England is tricky. We haven’t won since 2007 and our record has generally been very poor barring 1986 when we won impressively with a seam/swing heavy bowling attack…

England are without three of their impact players in Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes and their batting, apart from skipper Joe Root, looks brittle. So India has a great chance to turn the tables and win this time around.

What kind of team composition would you advise?

A: Team composition is invariably dependent on pitch and weather conditions, especially in England. So it’s hard to say what the playing XI should be. With Rishabh Pant batting with so much flair and confidence, the option to go with an extra seamer or a spinner is available to the team management.

Does this team have the potential to beat England in England? Your prediction…

This team can definitely beat England. My prediction is 4-0 if the sun is out on most days or 3-1 if the conditions are overcast.

Your advice to batters like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who get bogged down and get lost in the woods playing the technical perfectitude game? For a batsman like Rahane to be outfoxed by Williamson with the bumper was criminal in the WTC final…

They have a batting coach, so if they need advice they should go to him.

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