Former Indian player and national selector Sandeep Patil has welcomed the decision of Virat Kohli to step down from the T20I captaincy. However, Kohli put a full stop to all the speculation that was going on over his captaincy future in white-ball cricket by announcing his decision after the upcoming T20 World Cup.
While speaking to the Times of India, Patil said that leading the country across formats for such a long time can take a toll on a single player. He shared that this will help Virat Kohli to focus more on his batting as well.
Patil said: “I welcome Virat’s step. Captaincy does play on your mind. Captaining the side and concentrating on your batting at the same time is not an easy job, especially as there’s so much cricket these days. This step will 100% help him focus more on his batting.”
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Virat Kohli has led India in 45 T20Is, winning 27 and losing 14 as well. Meanwhile, he is the only Asian captain to register bilateral series wins in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Under his leadership, India lost just one bilateral T20I series and they haven’t lost a T20I series since February 2019 as well.
He said: “It seems that there’s a big communication gap between BCCI and Virat. You can’t have Virat say one thing and the BCCI another. Just a couple of days back, there was a story in TOI about him quitting as a white-ball captain to focus on his batting. However, the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal rubbished that news quickly. This is purely Virat’s decision, and the BCCI should just accept it.”
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However, the veteran player has also backed Rohit Sharma as he believes he will do a great job as the T20 skipper who is likely to take over the responsibility after the T20 World Cup.
“Rohit (Sharma) has done a great job while leading the Mumbai Indians. I feel that he’s a fit choice to replace Virat as the India T20 captain. Rohit has proved his mettle,” he concluded.
