Team India will be without their captain Virat Kohli for the next three Test matches against Australia, as he returned to India to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their first child.
This decision of Kohli to prioritize his family over cricket has divided the cricketing community with many supporting Kohli’s decision to come back to India, while some saying he should have stayed back to help India retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The calls for him to stay back became stronger after India was shot out for 36 runs, their lowest Test score ever in the Adelaide Test, which they lost by 8 wickets, despite being in control for most of the game. Ajinkya Rahane will captain India for the remaining three Tests beginning with the Boxing Day match at MCG.
Former India spinner Dilip Doshi has criticized Kohli for putting his family over the Indian team and said that India is a sinking ship and when they needed their captain the most, he is abandoning them.
“To me, captaining India would be the prime-most thing on my mind. It’s a sinking ship. This is the time when they need their captain the most. If you leave at this time, you are leaving the side to your deputy with a lot of questions unanswered. I only hope and pray that the team shows enough character to come out of this,” Doshi told Sportskeeda during an online interaction with journalist Indranil Basu.
The Left-arm spinner who played 33 Test and 15 ODIs for India went on to add that while the BCCI cannot stop any player from taking such decisions; if he was in such a situation he would have not gone back, because 'national duty comes before everything else'.
“I know this is a modern phenomenon that people believe that they ought to be by the side of their family and spouses when they deliver a child. I understand all that. But when you are on a national duty… If I put myself in his shoes, I wouldn’t have gone. For me, national duty comes before everything else.
This is a highly individual and institutional approach. Legally, you cannot stop somebody from doing that. The cricket board cannot have a rule saying the players cannot go and be on the side of their spouses for such an occasion. Personally, I wouldn’t have gone,” added Doshi.
Steve Smith backed and lauded Kohli’s decision to be with his wife for the birth of their first baby.
(Sportskeeda inputs)
