Former India international Sanjay Manjrekar believes Virat Kohli was a very good captain for India in his own right, but due to the lack of results, he does not rate the 33-year-old as highly as some of the other players who have led India in the past. Kohli stepped down as India’s Test captain a day after his team suffered a 1-2 series loss at the hands of South Africa and with that ended his long seven-year tenure as the India skipper across formats. He had quit the T20I captaincy last year and was later stripped of ODI captaincy ahead of the SA tour.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Manjrekar said while there were a lot of things to like about Kohli’s captaincy, namely, his never say die attitude, a captain is generally judged in international cricket on the basis of results at ICC events. Unfortunately, Kohli’s and India’s trophy cabinet remained bare during his tenure in ICC events. “MS Dhoni is clearly one of India’s greatest captains. I judge captains generally on international cricket and also on ICC events. Because that’s when you are really tested,” opined Manjrekar, adding, “but ICC events, that is where Dhoni has been tremendous.
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“When you look at Kohli, there are a lot of things to like about him because he is somebody who led by example. The Wanderers Test match before this series, when they played on a treacherous pitch. India lost the series 2-0 but Kohli set an example as captain. He said that we want to win this despite a pitch that could have killed somebody. That kept India’s morale high. That is what you get with Virat Kohli, the never-say-die attitude,” said Manjrekar.
He went on to add that he would consider the likes of MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar as better captains than Kohli, despite the fact that Kohli walks away from the position as India’s most successful Test captain in terms of wins.
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“When we talk about all-time greats, it would be very unfair to not count Dhoni in that. Kapil Dev at a time when there was an inferiority complex at the world level. Saurav Ganguly after the match-fixing era gave India some overseas wins. Sunil Gavaskar also. So these are all great leaders. You live in an age where there are a lot of platforms, so the hype is more. But Indian cricket didn’t start 10 years back. These are guys that I believe have been better captains than Virat Kohli who has been very good in his own right,” he added.
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