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

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.”