Former India cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar voiced against the idea of split captaincy in the India cricket team, saying “there is no need for India to look at split captaincy” owing to Virat Kohli’s supremacy in all three formats of the game.
Kohli’s record as India captain in ODIs, Tests and T20Is have been impressive both at home and overseas and even his batting record has tremendously improved since taking over leadership.
But the Indian captain’s frequent breaks from the shortest format of the game and Rohit Sharma’s brilliant record in Kohli’s absence sparked the debate about split captaincy in the national team.
Rohit has had great success in T20 cricket, having won four IPL trophies for Mumbai Indians apart from leading India to victory in the Nidahas Tri-Series trophy.
However, Manjrekar believes that the Indian cricket team doesn't need split captaincy at the moment, as Kohli is doing an excellent job both as captain and batsman for India across all three formats.
In the latest video uploaded on his official YouTube channel, Manjrekar replied on a split captaincy query: “Now, my theory of split captaincy is that you don’t go looking to have split captaincy. So, if you are fortunate to have a captain, who is good in all three formats and still a good captain, then you don’t need split captaincy.”
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The cricket analyst further explained, “At the moment, you have Virat Kohli, who is excellent in all three formats, so there is no need for India to look at split captaincy. There might come a time in the future, who knows India might start looking for split captaincy.”
Meanwhile, the former batsman also pointed out how India is blessed to have had captains like legendary MS Dhoni and now Kohli, while insisting India doesn’t need to break the record of a single captain.
Manjrekar signed off by saying, “If India come to a situation where they have an excellent test captain and test player, but not good enough to be in 50 over and T20, then maybe you have a different captain. But, India at the moment are quite blessed and in the past as well, Dhoni was the same, when he was captaining all three formats, he was pretty good in all three formats.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
