6 selection blunders by Virat Kohli in South Africa, England and Australia which cost India dearly

There is no denying the fact that Virat Kohli is a great batsman. But the same cannot be said about his captaincy.

The most challenging part of the job of the Indian Cricket team's captain is overseas assignments, and so far Kohli has faltered at that.

One aspect about his captaincy that sticks out like a sore thumb is the team section policies adopted by him from time to time. India was touted to do great on the away tours of South Africa, England and Australia during late 2017 and 2018, but the story has remained almost the same - so near, yet so far.

From not being consistent in team selection to high aggressive intent while selecting his team, Kohli has made a few blunders on the way. Let's take a look at some of those mistakes:

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#6 Non-inclusion of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in Perth Test

Bhuvneshwar would have been handy at Perth

India lost the second Test of the Australian series at Perth convincingly after winning a humdinger at Adelaide. The pitch at Perth had a lot of pace and carry apart from swing and seam movement on offer.

Due to the injury to Ashwin, India were forced to make a change to the winning XI at Adelaide. They included a pace option, anticipating a lot of pace and carry at Perth, which was not a wrong assumption.

But instead of going for India's best exponent of swinging conditions and probably the most consistent line and length bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kohli went for the faster Umesh Yadav.

Yadav had ordinary returns from a pitch which was a paradise for the fast bowlers. One reason for India's loss at Perth was their inability to pick up wickets with the new ball, which could have been avoided with the inclusion of Kumar, who is arguably the best exponent of the new ball in the Indian squad.

#5 Inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav in the Lord's Test in England

Yadav bowled just nine overs in the Lords Test

Lord's has traditionally been a wicket on the slower side, which helps spinners during the second half of a Test match. This prompted India to include another spin option in their squad in the form of Kuldeep Yadav.

However, the first day's play during the Lord's Test was completely washed out due to rain. Conditions were forecast to be cloudy over the next four days too, and since the toss took place on the second day India should have taken the changed conditions into account and dropped the idea of going in with an additional spinner.

But that was not to be. Kuldeep Yadav ended up bowling just nine overs in the match and India lost the Test by an innings.

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#4 Persisting with Dhawan and Rahul in spite of their inadequate technique as openers

Rahul has been at sea against quality bowling

Another area of concern with Kohli's team selection policies is his choice of openers. Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul both were given an extremely long rope in spite of their repeated failures.

It is quite evident that Kohli prefers attacking options rather than stable ones. Rahul and Dhawan are attacking players, but their technique as openers is questionable.

It is better to fail with youngsters rather than sticking with players who are not going anywhere, but Kohli chose otherwise and India are still paying the price of having players with inadequate technique and temperament at the top.

#3 Dropping Cheteshwar Pujara for the first Test in England

Pujara is one of the pillars of Indian batting

When India dropped Pujara from the squad of the first Test in England, a lot of eyebrows were raised and rightly so. Former England greats openly said that they were surprised by the omission of perhaps India's temperamentally most sound batsman.

Instead, India played Rahul at number three, which again showed too much emphasis on being aggressive. Rahul failed in both the innings and India had to bring in Pujara for the second Test.

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2# Non-inclusion of Ajinkya Rahane during the first two Tests in South Africa

Rahane has played better during overseas assignments

The exclusion of Ajinkya Rahane, who has been India's most successful batsman after Kohli in overseas conditions, from the first two Test matches in South Africa was baffling to say the least. The reason given for Rahane's exclusion was his form at that point in time, which was based on his performance in Asian conditions.

Dropping a player of Rahane's stature on the basis of his form in Asian conditions, that too for an overseas tour where his record has been good, was not smart at all. As things turned out, India lost the first two Tests in Rahane's absence, and won the third with a vital contribution from him.

1# Dropping Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the second Test in South Africa

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Even after picking up 6 wickets in the first Test of the South African tour, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped from the squad for the second Test in South Africa. Not only did he pick up six wickets during the first Test, but he looked the most potent bowler as well. Apart from his bowling, Bhuvneshwar did an admirable job with the bat as well.

In fact, over the period of the last few years, he has been the only lower order batsman from India to put up any kind of resistance on overseas tours. He has played some important knocks for India in the lower order.

He was brought back into the squad for the third Test where he picked up four crucial wickets apart from scoring 63 important runs in a low scoring thriller. After being dropped from the second Test squad, Bhuvneshwar played an important part in India's win in the third Test, which again raised questions about Kohli's selection policies.