Does Dhoni as mentor signal the beginning of the end to Kohli's captaincy?

Virat Kohli

So finally, it is happening. The beginning of what looks like a change of guard in the captaincy of the Indian cricket team. Failure to win a single major trophy despite having the best Indian squad ever across formats, has started to bear down on Virat Kohli, prompting BCCI secretary Jay Shah to signal a change. It was Shah who convinced former India captain Dhoni to come on board as mentor for the upcoming T20 World Cup and Kohli could see the writing on the wall. For Kohli, it is a ‘head you win, tail I lose’ kind of scenario. If India manages to win the T20 World Cup, much of the credit will go to Dhoni. If India lose, Kohli would face the full brunt of it. Kohli also knows that Rohit Sharma as white-ball captain can’t be asked to wait forever and the top BCCI officials have already indicated that subtly by bringing in Dhoni who is supposed to look after the strategic part of the team management so that Kohli can entirely focus on his batting.

Neither a bad move nor a political one

Not that it is a bad move nor a political one which will affect Kohli’s unquestioned authority in team India’s crucial decision-making. In fact, the move by BCCI secretary can be termed as masterstroke since it looks like a win-win situation for all the stakeholders of Indian cricket which includes Kohli, the current captain, Rohit, the future white ball captain and the BCCI which gets a much-needed stop-gap arrangement in Rohit so that they can groom the likes of either KL Rahul or Rishabh Pant for all-format captaincy options in future. Reportedly, (if reliable sources are to be believed) Kohli has finally made up his mind to relinquish the white-ball captaincy so that he could focus on Test captaincy alone and work more on his batting. Since November 2019 (his last international hundred against Bangladesh), Kohli hasn’t scored a ton across the formats. Not only that, his batting numbers have taken a severe blow in this phase which consists of 12 Tests and 15 ODIs (Test average has been around 26 while his career average is 51, ODI average has come down to 43 while his career average is nearly 60) but his batting in T20Is is unaffected. In fact, his average (64) and strike rate (153) has never been better.

Rohit Sharma can’t be overlooked forever

Perhaps, even if belatedly, everyone seems to realise that one can’t any longer overlook the credentials of Rohit Sharma as captain in white ball cricket for India. In his limited opportunities for the national team, Rohit won the Asia cup in 2018 and has a great winning percentage in ODIs and T20s. However, what tilts the favor towards the Mumbai Indians’ skipper is his staggering record as an IPL captain (a record 5 titles in 8 seasons). There is always this Rohit Sharma vs. Virat Kohli style of captaincy debate in every season of the IPL and this time just before the T20 World Cup. “I don’t think a captain alone can win you the IPL trophy. There are lots of people involved in the entire show. And that is same with the MI. Virat has an outstanding record as an India captain. You can’t blame Virat singularly (for RCB’s failure to win), that is unfair. (Director of cricket) Mike Hessen and Simon Katich (Head coach) should come under fire because they are also responsible for RCB’s poor show. We shouldn’t be focusing only on Kohli’s captaincy. It is very easy and convenient to do that,” former India wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel had told this writer recently when asked about the ‘problem’ in Kohli’s captaincy.

Shelf life to the captaincy

“There is a shelf life to the captaincy in India, in which you can give it your best. Maybe the shelf lives are becoming shorter as time goes by,” said Rahul Dravid in 2007 when he quit from India’s captaincy after the historic 1-0 win in the Test series on English soil.  Ironically, Kohli has ended that drought of 14 years with another series win in England (although we all need to wait for the final verdict regarding the status of the Old Trafford Test) and now he too seems to have decided that there is indeed a shelf-life for every Indian captain, no matter how successful he may have been. Among the modern Indian captains, none has captained a Test team for as many years (7) as Kohli has. Dhoni’s tenure was for six years, which was only better than Sourav Ganguly’ five years (2000-05) rein in the new century. Dravid held that position for a couple of years (2005-07) and his Karnataka team-mate Anil Kumble managed to lead only in the interim period of transition from the Dravid-era to the Dhoni-era.

Let’s give the credit where it’s due

Even if Kohli has been rightly criticised for not being able to win a single global trophy in white ball cricket, none can deny the fact that his leadership in Test cricket especially in overseas conditions after Dhoni era’s timid surrenders in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (in the SENA countries) has been the dawn of a new era of dominance which has surprised the world.  Now, Kohli’s Test team is universally regarded as one of the best ever of all-times and definitely the best Indian Test team ever. Kohli has more wins in Tests than former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd’s (36) and only Steve Waugh (41), Ricky Ponting (48) and the former South African captain Graeme Smith (53) are ahead of him.