Australia batting great Ian Chappell lauded Virat Kohli as an exceptional captain, saying that he carried the Indian team to a higher level. On the other hand, Chappell called Joe Root a “fine batter but poor captain”.
Virat Kohli recently stepped down as India’s Test captain after 7 years at the helm. He had quit as India’s T20I captain before the T20 World Cup 2021, which was his last tournament as captain in T20 format. He was then replaced by BCCI as ODI captain with Rohit Sharma after he refused to continue as T20I captain, as the board cited that there couldn’t be two white-ball captains.
Chappell in his column for ESPNCricinfo compared the captaincy styles of Kohli and Root’s styles of captaincy and their corresponding efficacy.
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“This is a tale of two cricket captains; one very good at his job and the other a failure. There’s no doubt Kohli was an exception as captain; he didn’t curb his enthusiasm but he was still able to lead the Indian team to a higher level. With the capable assistance of vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, he lifted India to overseas success like no other captain had done,” Chappell wrote in his column.
In the case of Root, he was as blunt as any Aussie would ever be when it came to judging an English cricketer.
“The captaincy failure, despite having led his country more times than any other captain, is Joe Root. It doesn’t matter what Root or any other English devotee tells you, Root is a fine batter but a poor captain,” Chappell wrote about the England Test captain.
Chappell further said that Kohli during his stint as India captain enhanced the legacies of his predecessors Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni.
He wrote: “Kohli took the legacy of Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni and substantially built on it in seven years at the helm. His biggest disappointment as captain was the recent series loss to South Africa after India led the away series 1-0, though he didn’t captain in the middle Test of that series, in Cape Town.”
“One of Kohli’s great achievements was instilling in his team craving for Test cricket. Despite his all-encompassing success, Kohli’s major aim was to achieve victory in the Test arena and this is where his passion really shone,” he added.
In a contentious call, Ian Chappell credited Kohli as the reason behind Rishabh Pant’s success in Test cricket.
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“Kohli has a number of individual achievements in his resume, none bigger than the development of Rishabh Pant as a wicketkeeper and batter. Kohli tended to get his way when it came to selection and some of his decisions in this area were a little questionable but there’s no doubting his support of Pant was a masterstroke,” Chappell observed.
While continuing his assessment of Joe Root’s captaincy, Chappell called it unimaginative.
He said: “He (Root) was never going to be a successful leader. Though England under him have a reasonably presentable record at home, Root has lacked imagination as a captain, quickly run out of ideas, and showed little “gut feel” for the game. Too often his choice of bowlers to begin a session caused head-scratching, but the real killer was his tactics: they often made no sense.” Chappell feels that the reason why Root is a failure is because he hasn’t exactly been his own man with “too many off-field advisers”.
“A good captain has to take charge and this was an area where Root failed dismally. There’s no doubt his last tour was badly hampered by player injuries and he was poorly treated by fate. Nevertheless, ten Tests for eight losses and two unflattering draws is a fair summation of Root’s leadership in Australia. It was poor captaincy accompanied by bad luck.”
(PTI inputs)
