Ian Chappell backs Virat Kohli to captain India in ODIs

Ian Chappell feels Kohli is the right man to lead India

Former Australian captain, Ian Chappell feels Virat Kohli would be the right person to lead India in ODIs, apart from Test cricket, reports NDTV Sports. The cricketer-turned-commentator backed the Test skipper and felt it would be in India’s best interest for Kohli to lead the squad.

“Captaincy is fairly similar between Test cricket and 50-over cricket. So I would have thought, it would have been in Kohli’s best interest and India’s best interest… If you want to keep playing Dhoni in one-day cricket, fine, I don’t have a problem with that. But I really think Kohli should be the captain of both Test and One-day cricket”, he said.

The 72-year old argued that Kohli had the right attitude and felt that he could continue to lead India in ODI cricket along with Tests. “The only way to get better as a captain is to do the job… and you will make some mistakes more, everyone makes them. But that’s the way one progresses,” Chappell said.

“You learn from your mistakes than you do from your success as a captain. So there is an argument that if you are going to make Kohli the captain in the longest form of the game, it’s not going to hurt having him captaining in the 50-over game”, he added.

Recently, former Indian bowler Ajit Agarkar had spoken out about Dhoni’s recent performances and felt that the selectors needed to scrutinise his role more closely in the team. Agarkar is not the lone former cricketer to speak out about the captaincy issue in the Indian team. Earlier, South African legend Jacques Kallis had come out in support of Kohli and backed him to lead India in the limited-overs format.

Ever since Kohli took over test captaincy from MS Dhoni, he has been leading the team well and even guided India to a rare away series win against Sri Lanka in his first full stint as captain. Dhoni’s role as captain has come under the scanner since the time India lost against Bangladesh and the recent two T20Is at home against South Africa.

Kohli has captained the limited-overs Indian squad 17 times. He led India to victory in 14 of those games while losing three. His first stint as captain came during the tri-series in the West Indies. India lost the game by one wicket after Dhoni had injured himself during the game.