Ever since Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians to the IPL 2020 title, their fifth win overall; there has been a call to make him the Indian T20 captain over Virat Kohli, who has been doing so since 2017.
Kohli took over from MS Dhoni in 2017 as all-format captain and has had relative success, but has never been able to win any multi-nation trophy for India. He led India to the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy and the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup.
On the other hand, Rohit has captained India to the 2018 Asia Cup win and the famous Nidahas Trophy tri-series win as well and has had more success in IPL as well as captain. Virat has never won the title and has taken his franchise to the finals once as captain.
The debate on who should captain India in T20Is-Rohit or Kohli was also seen on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected when former India players Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra discussed their picks for the same.
“Virat Kohli is not a bad captain, but Rohit Sharma is better. There is a major difference between the qualities of captaincy,” said Gambhir on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.
Chopra pointed out that there was only a handful of T20Is left for India before the 2021 T20 World Cup begins and it was pointless changing the captain now.
WATCH - Gautam Gambhir reveals why Rohit Sharma should be India's T20I captain over Virat Kohli
“There is no time for changes in order to build a new team. There has to be a sufficient number of games for a new philosophy or work ethics to be introduced. With only 5-6 T20s left before T20 World Cup next year then I am not in favor of changing captaincy,” said Chopra.
Gambhir countered by saying that if players are picked on basis of IPL performances, why shouldn’t captains be named on the same criteria.
“When we choose players for international cricket on the basis of IPL, then why can’t we pick a T20I captain for India on the grounds of IPL performance? And if that’s not the case, then IPL should not be used as a parameter to select players for India. Why pick players from IPL then?” asked Gambhir.
Chopra didn’t back down and said that Kohli had done nothing wrong as T20I captain and pointed out that if some players haven’t done well for their respective franchises in IPL but have performed well in the national team, then it’s completely fine.
“International performances will be considered when looking for international pedigree, and IPL performances will be kept in isolation. If some players have done well for India and have a bad IPL, it’s fine. Virat Kohli as India captain in T20s has done nothing wrong so far,” added Chopra.
Here is the video of their argument:
