Former India opener Aakash Chopra has said that Virat Kohli’s T20 captaincy trial was unfair by the fans after India got knocked out of the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Chopra mentioned that after analysing Kohli’s captaincy in the shorter formats of the game he realised that the former skipper was blamed for ‘one bad day’. He also stated that his dethroning as a captain was unjust.
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“There was just one T20 World Cup, that he played as a captain, where we reached the semi-final (knocked out in Super 12). To be blamed because of just one bad day, it was unfair towards him,” Akash Chopra said on ShareChat’s audio chat room session.
“Not that I am a Kohli captaincy fan, I saw flaws in his captaincy and criticized where required, but a trial by fans situation shouldn’t have been created,” he added.
Kohli stepped down as India’s T20I captain after India exited the 2021 T20 World Cup without qualifying for the knockout stages in the United Arab Emirates. In a shocker to Indian fans, India lost to Pakistan by 10 wickets in their opener and suffered a defeat to New Zealand in their subsequent game to crash out of an ICC event without making the knockout stages for the first time since 2012.
After Kohli stepped down from T20I captaincy, he was sacked as ODI captain as well with criticism over his white-ball captaincy. There was news about communication issues as well between the star batter and the BCCI top officials. However, unexpectedly, Kohli also quit as India’s Test captain earlier this year following a series defeat in Sri Lanka.
Kohli is however one of the top three most successful captains in the shortest format of the game, winning 30 from 50 matches.
After Kohli’s exit as a captain, Rohit Sharma got the place to lead the team but Chopra believes that it’s important that India comes up with a succession plan to replace Rohit Sharma.
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“Since Rohit Sharma won’t get any younger, a plan of succession is required. Hardik Pandya could lead the Indian Team,” Chopra said.
It is by fact that over past few months, the Indian team management has tried multiple captains, especially in white-ball cricket in the recent past due to workload management. In absence of Sharma, India handed the role to Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan. However, for many cricket experts, Pandya is one of the most favourite out of the lot.
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