Former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan said that Virat Kohli’s sudden shocker to step down as the national team Test captain after leading the side for seven years didn’t shock him and claimed that the team’s debacle at the T20 World Cup 2021 put him under immense pressure.
Recently, Kohli dropped the sudden bomb of resigning as India’s Test captain after Team India lost the three-match Test series 1-2 against South Africa last week. Last year, the dashing cricketer resigned as India’s T20I captain and was later sacked as ODI captain.
Wassan told ANI on Sunday (January 16): “Nothing shocks me. What shocked me was Mahendra Singh Dhoni quitting Test captaincy in the middle of the series in Australia. I think the way things have been going by the last couple of months, India's debacle in the T20 WC there was pressure on him. He is not getting runs.
At times he is pointing fingers at other players and as a captain, he must do that to egg them on and I totally support him for that but the problem was that earlier he was leading by example but lately the thing is his batsmanship has come down.”
He further added, “Every batsman, every player goes through that and it could accentuate that he was captaining all three formats. He also started the conundrum when he said he doesn't want to do T20 captaincy which was the right decision but I think the board actually took it in a skewed manner and he never expected that he would lose his 50 over captaincy because his goal was to win the World Cup. This is what was missing from his cupboard.”
However, Wassan believes that things would have been different if India had won the Test series in South Africa while highlighting his inability to win an ICC trophy or World Cup as captain.
He continued, “Things change quickly in world cricket and when you are on a razor's edge you have to perform and that is why I have said Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have to pull their weight and that is what Kohli must be thinking. He has won the World Cup already but as a captain, it would have been cherry on the top and that is what he wanted.”
Wassan signed off by saying, “But looking at things he must have thought that I have to start the WTC cycle again. He could not win a Test series in South Africa. Probably he could have won in South Africa then things could have been different.”
(With ANI Inputs)
