Virat Kohli’s selection of the playing eleven in England, rotation of his bowlers and failure to clinch key moments in the match have also made the former batting legend Sunil Gavaskar sit back and reflect on his captaincy skills.
“Everybody would be disappointed looking at the result because when Virat Kohli took over as captain, it seemed like the team would head into a new direction under him. The team looked hungry to win and seemed more hopeful of doing well under Kohli. Everyone thought that he will bring in a lot more josh, a lot more energy into the team. So quite naturally, there will be questions asked about his captaincy’ he said.
“Everybody knew that the three toughest series for India was going to be in South Africa, England and the forthcoming Australia tour. Before this all that India played were more like practice tours in Sri Lanka and West Indies.
“Even the way in which India came back to beat Australia in the Test series last year after losing the first match, that gave us the impression that India wouldn’t back down to any challenge under captain Kohli. It seemed India would always play with their heads held high. But the captain is only as good as his team. As a batsman Kohli has lived up to the expectations and even more. He has done everything possible as a batsman.
“If only the other batsmen could have played like him. If any other batsman could have scored over 400-500 runs then India wouldn’t have lost Test series in South Africa and in England. This is like a learning curve for Kohli at the moment. Fans are bound to be disappointed as the expectations were quite high with this team. Looking at how they performed before this at home, in West Indies and in Sri Lanka, everybody were hoping to see history being made on foreign soil,” Gavaskar told India Today in an exclusive chat after India lost the Southampton Test and also the series.
Kohli has so far amassed a record 544 runs in the series and is the leading run-getter from either side while the next best Indian on the list is Cheteshwar Pujara, who has amassed 241 runs. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul have performed miserably till now with just 158 and 113 runs respectively.
