Virat Kohli Sacked From Captaincy - Rohit Sharma New Captain; A 'Mournful' Day For Indian Cricket?

On December 8th 2021, BCCI announced that Virat Kohli will no longer captain the Indian team in the ODIs. In his stead, Rohit Sharma was announced as the new limited-overs captain of the team. Earlier, Virat Kohli had announced ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 that he'd resign from the T20 captaincy after the World Cup, citing workload management as the reason. 

BCCI stripped off Kohli's captaincy, and many fans are happy that 'Hitman' has been announced as the new skip, and are already celebrating potential 2022 T20 World Cup and 2023 World Cup victories under captain Sharma. 

Let's take a deep dive into Virat Kohli's statistics as captain and the reasons regarding his removal from leadership, only to hand it over to Rohit Sharma, another senior player. 

Virat Kohli captained India in 95 ODI matches, winning 65 of them with a terrific win percentage of 70%, the best win percentage by any Indian captain.

Meanwhile, he scored 5,449 runs with 21 centuries & 27 fifties in 91 innings. It is noteworthy that in Virat's more than half of the innings as captain, he has registered 50+ runs (48 out of 91 innings). 

Thank you, Skipper! @imVkohli
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.#Cricket #SAvIND #IndianCricket #TeamIndia #RohitSharma #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/k4wAUV2apZ

— CRICKETNMORE (@cricketnmore) December 8, 2021

Moreover, Virat Kohli led India to ODI & T20I series wins in Australia, South Africa & New Zealand. He also led India to the 2018 T20 Series win against England in England. Under captain Kohli, India managed to reach the finals of the 2017 Champions Trophy & Semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup. 

Virat Kohli's India in ODIs has defeated South Africa in South Africa 5-1. They have beaten Australia in 3 out 4 ODI series, defeated England in 2 out of 3 series & New Zealand in 2 out of 3 series. 

India's One Of The Most Successful Captains!

Thank You Captain Kohli
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.#Cricket #indiancricket #teamindia #INDvSA #RohitSharma #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/c7q7vd6hl9

— CRICKETNMORE (@cricketnmore) December 8, 2021

However, Virat Kohli has always been criticized for not winning an ICC trophy, although Virat's team finished as table toppers in World Cup 2019 but later lost to New Zealand in the semi-finals. 

It is still understandable if BCCI wants a captain who would win knockout/important matches for the team, and in this quest, they decided to make Rohit the skipper of the side. Let's take a look at Rohit's recent performances in the knockout/important matches. 

Champions Trophy 2017 - Final vs Pakistan

Pakistan was put in to bat first by team India, and posted a massive target of 338, courtesy of a hundred by Fakhar Zaman & fifties by Azhar Ali & Mohammad Hafeez. 

Hitman Rohit Sharma opened for India and was ready to 'dominate' with his excellent leadership and match-winning skills, and was dismissed for a duck on the third ball of the Indian innings. 

India lost the match by 180 runs. 

World Cup 2019 - Semi-Final vs New Zealand

India finished as table toppers in the 2019 World Cup, winning 7 out of their 9 matches, with only one loss (against England). This tournament was played in a different format than the earlier editions of the World Cup. 

Earlier, matches were played in group stages, but in this world cup the matches crucial important centuries.

In the semi-finals, NZ won the toss & opted to bat first, setting a target of 240 in front of the Indians. Rohit Sharma opened the innings and contributed with a very important run before he was dismissed by Matt Henry on the 4th ball Sharma faced. India lost the match by 18 runs. 

T20 World Cup 2021 - India vs Pakistan 

India lost its first ICC World Cup match against Pakistan for the first time, in 2021. It's safe to assume that this was the point where the turmoil to change skippers began. Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets, chasing 152. This was obviously perceived by the Indian fans as a huge dishonour, getting defeated by the arch-rivals Pakistan that too in a World Cup. 

In this match, India was put in to bat first by Babar Azam. Rohit Sharma, once again 'choked' in an important match, registering another golden duck to his name. In this match, captain Virat Kohli was the lone ranger with his 57 off 49 balls but lack of support from other batters proved hazardous. 
India lost the very next match, which was a do-or-die match against New Zealand (Rohit Sharma scored 14 off 14), and India was eliminated in the World Cup from the group stage only. 

Coming back to the issue of captaincy, if one wants Virat Kohli removed as captain because of defeats in 'important/knockout' matches, is Rohit Sharma the right man to hold the responsibility, given his individual records in important matches for India?

Furthermore, Rohit Sharma is aged 34 now. It can be predicted that he would play for the national side till the 2023 World Cup max. In this case, it would make more sense if a younger player was handed over the responsibility so that he can be groomed while the current leadership core group, of Indian coaches, Rohit & Virat are still here. Now, Rohit would leave the captaincy and team together, and the next captain would be devoid of leadership guidance by senior members/former captain in the team. 

It is noteworthy that Sachin was also 34 years old when he decided not to participate in the T20 World Cup to give youngsters a chance to play the shorter format which requires more strength & enthusiasm. Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, has been handed the captaincy at this ripe age. Not to forget, Kohli is a year younger than Rohit. 

The reason behind calling this a 'Mournful Day' in Indian cricket is not because Virat Kohli was sacked so disrespectfully from captaincy, but in his stead, Rohit Sharma was given the captaincy. If KL Rahul or even Rishabh Pant was handed the captaincy, it would have made sense to groom a youngster for the important role. However, this decision stipulates that BCCI is thinking short-term, only about the next 1 or 2 World Cups. 

If only the captain is changed, and the approach is the same, it seems improbable that India would break the knock-out curse. But if the 'richest' & most 'powerful' cricket board in the world thinks that the solution lies in sacking one of the most successful Indian limited over captains, so be it. 

With this decision, we are eagerly waiting for a reaction from Virat Kohli. Will he continue playing limited-overs cricket after this gesture of disrespect, only time would tell. Rohit has also been assigned the vice-captaincy of the test team, and it'd be interesting to see for how long Kohli will hold the reigns of the test team. 

India is set to play a 3-match test series against South Africa at their home, starting from December, followed by 3 T20Is.