World Cup title will enhance Virat Kohli’s standing as captain: Sunil Gavaskar

Kohli is yet to win an ICC tournament as a captain.

Team India under the leadership of Virat Kohli are doing wonders lately, be it in Test cricket or limited-overs formats. They were the numero uno Test side until recently for close to four years and are few points behind top-ranked England in the ICC ODI rankings.

Despite such a level of domination, there is one thing missing from the cabinet. Kohli and company have failed to lift an ICC trophy as of now. While the Men in Blue lost the final of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 to arch-rivals Pakistan, they suffered a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the first semi-final of World Cup 2019.

See Also: ‘Kohli has won nothing as a leader’, Gambhir feels current India skipper has a lot to achieve

Therefore, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar feels Kohli needs to win World Cups to cement his legacy as captain of the Indian cricket team.

"A captain is defined by the world championships/world cups that he wins. You can win the Asia Cup which is fantastic, but you also want to win World Cups because that is where you're standing as a captain is going to be enhanced," Gavaskar said on the latest episode of India Today E-Inspiration.

He also explained why India couldn't lift the 50-over World Cup in England last year. According to Gavaskar, not having a "proper batsman" at No. 4 cost the team in the showpiece tournament.

India started their World Cup campaign with KL Rahul batting at No. 4. But the team management had to move Rahul at the top after Shikhar Dhawan got ruled out of the showpiece event due to a fractured thumb. With Rahul opening with Rohit Sharma, Vijay Shankar batted at No. 4 for India in the next few games before Rishabh Pant eventually taking that crucial slot.

"India's top-3 batting lineup is such a fabulous batting lineup that often it has happened that numbers 4 and 5 at the initial stages of the World Cups haven't got the opportunity to play long innings, to get their eye in.

"Suddenly when your top-3 are dismissed cheaply, and that can happen in the odd match, unfortunately for India it has happened in a knockout game and that is where number 4, 5 and 6 haven't been able to cope with the loss of your earlier prolific batsmen.

"What we need to look at is to have somebody at 4, 5 and 6 who are very good batsmen, who would otherwise bat at the top but because 1, 2 and 3 are occupied they are batting in the middle-order. We made a mistake by not having a proper No. 4 at the 2019 World Cup. If we had had a proper No. 4 for the World Cup then it might have been a completely different story," Gavaskar remarked.