Continuing on from my comments on Saturday, regarding how big a loss it is for India with Virat Kohli stepping down as Test captain, the following will prove what I am saying.
Yes, more often than not India win series at home, but Kohli was the only India captain who never lost a series at home, he won 11 Test series in a row and just two Test matches at home which is staggering record.
When it comes to winning abroad, no India captain had won a series in Australia and Virat accomplished this challenge by beating the best in the world — not once but twice. Against England, India had last won in 2006 and he was on the verge of winning a series before Covid struck. He beat West Indies twice at their home when they were peaking under Jason Holder. India also won a series against Sri Lanka after 21 years not once but twice. The only two countries he could not win were New Zealand and — most recently — South Africa. He had 16 away Test wins, which in 60 test matches as captain would have broken all records had the BCCI wanted him as a captain. Sadly they did not.
Sourav Ganguly had said he tried to convince Kohli to hold on when he decided to step down as T20 captain, but since Virat did not budge, they removed him as ODI skipper, where he has 70 per cent success.
Now when he decided to quit Test Cricket, the tweet — of course from the big bosses: “Thank you for your services and we respect your decision.”
Why did not they ask him to continue? Simple. Because they never wanted him as captain as he was one leader who took bold decisions and stood by them and backed them to the core — be it not picking Ravichandran Ashwin in any of the Test matches in England when everyone wanted him to do so.
He backed his instinct and played with four fast bowlers and Ravindra Jadeja — it worked wonders.
He was one captain who was in the face of the opposition but I am afraid in the face of the selectors who wanted a puppet and not a leader hence let him go in spite of such an outstanding record which took India from No. 7 in the standings to the top and he maintained it for five years.
