Virat Kohli stepped down as India’s test captain earlier this year.© AFP
Virat Kohli’s captaincy era will go down in the history of Indian cricket as one of the most successful across all formats in terms of number of matches won and percentage of wins. Kohli may not have won a single major ICC tournament, but he instilled a ‘win at any cost’ mentality in the team, which was reflected in his team’s results in bilateral cricket.
But former India opener Virender Sehwag believes that the best captain is the one who builds a new team and in that regard he ranks former India captain and current BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly higher than others including Kohli.
“Sourav Ganguly built a new team, brought in new players and supported them through their highs and lows,” Sehwag recalls. “I doubt Kohli did that during his tenure,” he added during an exclusive interaction on Home of Heroes, on Sports18.
Ganguly took over as captain of India at the turn of the century and brought a fighting spirit to the team, enabling India to achieve great results both at home and on the road. He also supported future stars like Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh through good and bad form among others, something he thinks Kohli didn’t do with some players.
“In my opinion, the No. 1 captain is the one who builds a team and gives his players confidence. He (Kohli) supported some players, not others,” Sehwag said.
promoted
Kohli stepped down from the T20I captaincy after campaigning in India in the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. He was replaced by Rohit Sharma in ODIs towards the end of last year, as he stepped down as Test captain after India’s loss to South Africa earlier this year.
Rohit Sharma is now the master of India in all formats.
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