Virat Kohli inspirational, Rohit Sharma tactical: R Ashwin, Varun Chakaravarthy weigh in on India captaincy debate

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recently retired from Test cricket.

Virat Kohli's reign as T20I captain of India came to end after the 2021 T20 World Cup. He opted to resign as captain of the Twenty20 Internationals and soon after, the BCCI also relieved him of his ODI captaincy, handing it over to Rohit Sharma. In 2022, Virat resigned as captain of the Test team.

India won the T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. Then, this year in 2025, Rohit guided India to Champions Trophy 2025 title victory. Since he has played under both Kohli and Rohit, spinner Varun Chakaravarthy was asked to explain the differences between their captaincy on R Ashwin's YouTube show.

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The KKR star said, “Virat is a true leader. When you just see him, when you just observe what he is doing and you must have also noticed the match against Pakistan, you were also there. We lost first two wickets to Shaheen Shah Afridi. But when Virat came, he stepped down and hit Shaheen for six and it was so inspiring and motivational, but how he is giving it back and all this. So Virat is exceptional, as in the way he can he can cheer up everyone. So the main thing was whenever I spoke to him his answers were very motivational and in that thing and when I spoke to Rohit Sharma, it was very tactical. So it was two different parts.”

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Ashwin acknowledged that Rohit is more tactical and concurred with Varun's argument. “So one is inspirational, the other one more tactical, which I kind of resonate. Because Virat goes and does things. He is there in your eye line, the way he trains, the way he practices, what he does. But Rohit does understand a lot more tactics in terms of what he does. Everything is tactical in terms of field placement, this batsman, this shot and all that.”

Having already quit T20Is, Kohli and Rohit recently announced their retirements from Test cricket. A new generation has assumed leadership of the current India vs England Test series, with Rishabh Pant named vice-captain and Shubman Gill named captain.