News

Kohli ends T20I captaincy as India’s second-most successful leader

Written by Abhishek Patil

Virat Kohli on Monday ended his tenure as the captain of India’s T20 international team with 30 wins in five years with Namibia being the latest side to go down against the Men in Blue at the ICC T20 World Cup in Dubai.

Kohli was India’s second most successful skipper in the shortest format after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who left the mantle in 2016 after stepping down as the white-ball captain.

Kohli ends his T20I captaincy career with 30 wins and 16 losses from 50 games. He is also the second behind Australia’s Aaron Finch on the list of most runs by captains in T20I cricket with 1570 runs from 47 innings at an average of 47.57 which includes 13 half-centuries.

But all the batting and captaincy records aside, the fact that will hurt Virat Kohli the most would be the lack of ICC titles under his leadership.

The T20 World Cup 2021 provided the last chance for Kohli to clinch an ICC title in the format as captain but unfortunately, India failed to make the knockouts of the tournament for the first time since the 2012 edition after crashing out in the Super 12s.

The heavy defeats against Pakistan (10 wickets) and New Zealand (8 wickets) last month massively hurt India’s chances the most in this tournament.

Even though Kohli managed to inspire his team to victory in their next two matches against Afghanistan and Scotland to keep the team’s slim chances of reaching the semifinals alive, it wasn’t enough to keep them in the competition as New Zealand’s win over Afghanistan dashed all their hopes of advancing to the semis.

Kohli however, will bow out on a high note as they beat the Namibians in their final match of this campaign by 9 wickets to finish third in Group 2.

About the author

Abhishek Patil