Virat Kohli’s Captaincy Legacy: Many Highs And Not So Many Lows

On Saturday, he brought the curtain down on his stint as India’s Test captain by announcing to relinquish the job through a Twitter post. He had earlier given up T20 captaincy following which he was also removed as ODI captain by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Kohli’s decision to leave Test captaincy, which came just a day after India suffered a seven-wicket defeat against South Africa in Cape Town to concede the three-match series 2-1 , was not surprising considering his strained relationship with the BCCI in recent times.

Ever since he was stripped of ODI captaincy in an unceremonious manner, Virat Kohli has been involved in a war of words with the BCCI officials, including the chief of selectors, Chetan Sharma.

RICH LEGACY

Keeping the controversy aside, though, it’s time to reflect on and evaluate Kohli’s legacy as India’s captain in Test cricket. Virat Kohli took over as India’s full-time Test captain in January 2015 after his predecessor MS Dhoni?announced a surprise retirement from the longer version of the game at the end of the drawn Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne on December 30, 2014.

Since then, Kohli?led India with distinction both at home and abroad. With 40 wins from 68 matches, he is statistically the most successful Indian Test captain of all time.?Kohli's win percentage of 58.82 per cent makes him the fourth most successful captain in the annals of Test cricket, behind only Steve Waugh (71.93 per cent), Don Bradman (62.50 per cent) and Ricky Ponting (62.34).

India have always been a dominant force at home, but the team became nearly unbeatable in his captaincy era. Out of 34 Tests played between 2015 and 2021, India lost only two – one against Australia in 2017 and another against England in 2021. They won 26 of these games.

PROUD AWAY RECORD

However, the highlight of Virat Kohli’s tenure was how India emerged as a force to reckon with in overseas conditions. Between 2011 and 2014, India had a horrific run in away Tests, winning only two out of 24 matches. They suffered 15 losses during this period including an identical 4-0 whitewash in Australia (2011-12) and England (2011).

Contrast these figures with what the side achieved under Kohli. Between January 2015 and January 2022, India won 18 out of 39 Tests abroad while losing only 14 (two of these victories came under Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy in Australia in 2020-21).

Kohli became the first Asian captain to register a Test series win in Australia in 2018-19 while India took a 2-1 lead against the home team in England in an unfinished series last year. He also guided India to the final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC).

Kohli also belonged to a rare breed of cricketers who excelled as a batsman after donning the mantle of a skipper. ?With a tally of 5,864 runs at an average of 54.80, he is the third most prolific captain-batsman in the history of the game next to only Graeme Smith (8,659), Allan Border (6,623) and Ricky Ponting (6,542).

Kohli's average is the best among the six captains with 5,000-plus runs. That his batting average as captain (54.80) is way higher than his average when he played only as a batsman (41.13) speaks volume for his ability to thrive under pressure.

ALL WAS NOT ALWAYS WELL

Enviable as his captaincy stats are, things were not always hunky-dory for the 33-year-old. His captaincy often came under the scanner in limited-overs cricket for he failed to win any major ICC tournament. In Tests too, he drew flak when India lost the WTC final to New Zealand in June 2021.

India were rolled over for 36 in Adelaide in 2020 - a ?game after which he left the tour midway to be with his wife for the birth of his first child. In his absence, as Rahane-led team rallied from that humiliating defeat to record a historic 2-1 series win Down Under, a section of fans and experts called for a change of guard.

From time to time, the Delhi-born cricketer was also criticised for his on-field antics and ultra-aggressive behaviour. Only a few days ago, several former cricketers, including his former teammate Gautam Gambhir, slammed him for using stump mic to express his frustration over a contentious lbw decision that went against his team during the Cape Town Test.

Aggression, though, defined Kohli as the captain. He may have gone overboard on a few instances, but his attitude rubbed off on his teammates more often than not, which reflected in the brand of fearless cricket India played under his leadership. His leadership legacy will live on.

(Ankit Kumar Singh is a sports journalist-turned-academician with a PhD in Mass Communication from the Banaras Hindu University. Views are personal)