India cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar weighed in on the Ajinkya Rahane-Virat Kohli captaincy debate, which raged on after Rahane led India to a brilliant comeback win in the MCG Test to level the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series 1-1, with 2 matches to go.
Kohli came back to India after the Adelaide Test match to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their first child. Ajinkya Rahane took over as captain of the Indian team for the remainder of the series.
The fans have been impressed with Rahane’s aggressive captaincy in the MCG Test, which came on the back of the Adelaide debacle. Rahane also scored 112 and 27* in the match, to win the Player of the Match award as well.
Kohli has been criticized for his captaincy, especially after India lost 2-0 to New Zealand at the start of 2020 and then his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore failed yet again to reach the finals of the IPL 2020 edition, and then India lost the ODI series 2-1, before winning the T20I series by the same margin.
Kohli is India’s most successful Test captain in cricket history with 33 wins in only 56 matches with a win percentage of over 50. But still, people are debating on removing Kohli as captain.
However, Sachin Tendulkar said, “People shouldn’t get into comparisons with Virat. Ajinkya has different personality. His intent was aggressive. I would like to remind everyone that they are both Indians and they both play for India, so no individual comes above India. Team and country is above everything else.”
2020 was a very odd year for Virat Kohli, as he failed to make a single century in the calendar year in international cricket. However, he ended up winning the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Decade award and the ICC Cricketer of the Decade award as well.
He was the only batsman in ODI cricket in the ICC Awards period to make more than 10,000 runs and over 25 centuries.
(PTI inputs)
