Former India skipper Virat Kohli talked about his failures to win any ICC title during his tenure as India's captain from 2014-2021. He also talked about being lucky to be in the Indian team for the 2011 World Cup which they won.
Kohli had taken over as Test captain from MS Dhoni in the 2014-15 tour of Australia and in other two formats in 2017. He then led the Indian team to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, the semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2019, final of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 during his tenure, apart from keeping India the no.1 Test team five years in a row.
He was removed as ODI captain last year after he stepped down as the T20I captain ahead of the T20 World Cup in 2021 and then relinquished the Test captaincy in 2022 after a series loss to South Africa.
However, while speaking on the RCB podcast season 2, Virat Kohli said that even after reaching the semifinal and finals of the ICC tournaments, he has been tipped as a “failed captain.”
“Look, you play to win tournaments. I captained in Champions Trophy 2017 (reached the final), 2019 WOrld CUp (reached the semifinal), I captained in World Test Championship (reached the final), and T20 World Cup in 2021 (failed to qualify for the knockouts). After three (four) ICC tournaments, I was considered as a failed captain,” said Kohli.
“I never judged myself from that point of view; what we ended up achieving as a team and as a cultural change that always going to be a matter of pride for me. A tournament happens for a certain period of time but a culture happens over a long period of time and for that you need consistency for that you need more characters than just winning a tournament,” he added.
“I won a World Cup as a player. I won the Champions Trophy as a player. I have been part of the team that has won five Test maces. If you look at that point of view there have been people, who have never won a World Cup,” he also said so.
However, Virat Kohli is a World Cup winner, as he was part of the Indian team that won the 2011 edition of the tournament at home. He said that he was lucky to be part of that winning squad.
“He kind of took me under his wings,” Kohli says Dhoni groomed him for captaincy role since 2012
“To be honest, I was lucky enough to be part of that 2011 team. And what led to my selection was also amazing because I had a great run of great scores, and I ended up being with the team. Sachin Tendulkar was playing in his sixth World Cup, and that was the one he won. I was able to be a part of the team for the first time, and I ended up being part of the winning side.
I am looking back at things that I am grateful for not what has gone wrong in my career. I am not mad for my trophy cabinet to be full,” he said.
Kohli has played 106 Tests, 271 ODIs, and 115 T20Is for India in a career spanning 15 years scoring over 25000 international runs.
(Indian Express inputs)
