Since the 2013 Champions Trophy, the Indian team has not won any major ICC tournament. The current Indian captain Virat Kohli was handed over the T20I and ODI captaincy in January 2017 as former skipper MS Dhoni had decided to relinquish his duties. However, in the last three years, India has not gone all the way in big tournaments under the leadership of Virat Kohli.
India lost the final of the Champions Trophy 2017 and also the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup under the captaincy of Kohli. Gautam Gambhir, who is known to shoot from the hip, feels Virat Kohli has won nothing as a leader and he has a long way to go as the captain of the side.
There is no doubt that Kohli is the best batsman in the world but India is still to win the big matches under his captaincy. Gambhir added that Kohli still has a lot to achieve to prove himself as a good leader.
Gambhir said while talking to Star Sports Cricket Connected that till a player is able to win the big matches for the team, there is always a huge void in his career.
Gautam Gambhir said when he was asked if Virat Kohli has a long way to go as a captain, “Lots! It is a team sport. You can keep scoring your own runs. There are people like Brian Lara who have scored so many runs. There are people like Jacques Kallis who have won nothing. Virat Kohli at the moment has won nothing to be honest as a leader. He has a lot to achieve.”
“You can keep scoring those big runs but according to me, till you win those big trophies you will never be able to fulfil your entire career.”
Gambhir feels that a successful captain must be able to get the best out of his players. As every player is different from the other, it is the captain’s responsibility to handle them differently.
One of the factors for which Kohli is often criticized as a captain is that he was not able to create a settled team due to continuous chop and change in the playing combination. Players have not been backed properly and they have been dropped despite decent performances. Furthermore, India had gone into the 2019 World Cup without an experienced middle order.
Kohli has led India in 181 matches across the three forms in which the team has won on 117 occasions whereas they have lost 47.
