The Indian cricket team has been performing pretty well under the leadership of Virat Kohli for quite some time now. Recently, the skipper was also praised for his captaincy and brilliant batting performance against the England squad which lost the 4-match test series by 3-1, 5-match T20I series by 3-2 and 3-match ODI series by 2-1.
However, Virat Kohli is constantly getting slammed for his failure in the IPL as his team Royal Challengers Bangalore has not been able to win the IPL title even once till date. Virat has been associated with RCB since the inaugural edition of 2008 and he has been leading the team since 2013 but could not make his team IPL winner so far. In the IPL 2020 which was played in UAE due to the coronavirus pandemic, RCB did manage to reach the play-offs but was defeated by Sunrisers Hyderabad in the knockout stage.
On the other hand, the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team, Rohit Sharma who leads Mumbai Indians in the IPL has broken all the records of success as he is the most successful skipper of the tournament while MI is the most successful team as it has won the league five times under Hitman’s leadership. The IPL 2020 was also won by Mumbai Indians and they would certainly like to repeat their success in the IPL 2021 too which will start from April 9.
Many times some Indian cricket fans have raised their voices and demanded that India should also follow the concept of split captaincy and make Rohit Sharma the skipper of the team in the shortest format as he has won IPL five times while Virat Kohli is still waiting to win his first.
Though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and both the players have never talked or given any statement in this regard, the former national selector Sarandeep Singh opened up on this matter during an interview to a leading daily. Sarandeep Singh’s tenure as a selector has ended with the Australian series and he states that no discussion in regard to split captaincy has ever taken place because Virat Kohli has performed in a superb manner both as a batsman and as a skipper.
Sarandeep adds that split captaincy comes in scene when the skipper is not performing so the pressure of captaincy is taken from him by making someone else skipper but Virat is the only batsman to score at the average of 50 in all the formats so there is no question of split captaincy. According to Sarandeep, Virat is undoubtedly the fittest player of the Indian cricket team and Rohit Sharma is always there to lead the squad in Virat’s absence. However, he also adds that Virat can’t be removed from captaincy just because his team has not won an IPL trophy.
Despite the fact that the Indian team management tried many opening options in T20Is as KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan and even Virat Kohli opened with Rohit Sharma but in Sarandeep Singh’s opinion, the right-left combination of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan is the best choice for the World Cup. Sarandeep said that he was quite surprised with these experiments as Dhawan performed well in the IPL and then in Australia. He also calls Dhawan a mentally strong player, adding that Gabbar has played well whenever he is given a chance. As per Sarandeep Singh, many important decisions will depend on the IPL and it is not easy to secure place in the team.
Do you feel that Virat Kohli and his IPL team RCB will be able to win the tournament this year?