Why it is time to give Virat Kohli's captaincy the respect it deserves

Royal Challengers Bangalore underachieving in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has become a running theme. Season after season, the franchise has flattered to deceive, and performed massively below expectations.

It's a well-known fact that RCB have never lifted the trophy despite having one of the strongest sides in the competition. Since Virat Kohli was given the captaincy, they have made the playoffs just twice in seven years.

When a team fails to live up to its potential, questions are bound to be asked of the man at the helm. Every summer, Kohli's captaincy is bought under the scanner as RCB fail to meet expectations. Over the years, a lot of decisions taken by Kohli have been scrutinized and criticized.

Apart from him, the other three captains (MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, and Rohit Sharma) to have led their side in more than 100 IPL matches have won the trophy at least twice. Kohli is the only one of the four to have a win percentage of less than 50%.

Consequently, when Kohli was handed over the captaincy of the Indian team in the limited overs format, there was a lot of apprehension among the media and fans on his competency for the job. Somehow that tag has more or less stuck with him over the years, and many are yet to be convinced by him.

However, it might be time for the cricketing community to reconsider their perception.

Test cricket

India's victory in the second Test against West Indies last week meant that with 28 wins, Kohli has overtaken Dhoni as India's most successful Test captain of all time. Not only has Kohli recorded the most wins as captain, he has also done it in much quicker time than the ones nearest to him on the list.

The current skipper has led the team in 48 matches so far. On the contrary, Dhoni's record of 27 wins came in 60 matches while India won 21 matches under Saurav Ganguly's captaincy in 49 matches.

Similarly, Kohli's win percentage of 58.33% is also significantly higher than any of his predecessors. Dhoni and Ganguly, with win percentages of 45% and 42.85% respectively, are the only ones who are anywhere close. No other Indian captain who has captained the side for more than five Test matches has even crossed a win percentage of 30%.

The Indian Test team has been known to be unbeatable at home for many years now and under Kohli, that legacy has only grown. Under his leadership, India have won every home series they have played in the longest format of the game.

In fact, quite remarkably, Kohli has only lost one Test at home as captain. which was against Australia at Pune in 2017. Even considering the surreal record India hold at home in the longest format of the game, it is no mean feat to lose just one game in four years.

Away from home

Despite series losses, India won a Test each in South Africa and England under Kohli

The biggest testament to Kohli's captaincy is that under him, the team have delivered the goods away from home too. So far in his tenure, India have already won two series each in Sri Lanka and West Indies. While it can be said that the declining quality of the opposition played a part, it was still a commendable achievement to win by the margins India did in both countries.

It is worth noting that prior to Kohli's team winning the series in 2015 (and later 2017), India had only once won a Test series in the Island nation. In fact, five of the nine Test matches India have won in Sri Lanka have come under the current captain's reign.

While the decline in Sri Lankan cricket is visible to the world, it must not be forgotten that they have still managed to whitewash the likes of Australia and South Africa at home and become the first Asian team to win an away series in South Africa.

Quite recently, even New Zealand could only manage to draw the series over there. Only England in 2018 dominated the same way in Sri Lanka as Kohli's India have.

On the other hand, although India have now won their last four series in West Indies, it is only in the two tours under Kohli that India have won more than one Test in the Carribean Islands in the same series. They made light work of them in the recently concluded series, and one must remember that it was only a few months ago that England comprehensively lost a series there.

However, the greatest moment under Kohli's leadership has been winning the Test series in Australia. For everything the nation has achieved in the sport, a series win Down Under remained an unaccomplished quest. That was for years considered as India's holy grail in Test cricket, and the eternal wait was finally completed by Kohli's side earlier this year.

While people might point to failures in South Africa and England, the fact is that no Indian team had ever won more than one match in a series in either nation, which Kohli's team managed to achieve. In fact, a case can be made of India being more competitive in both countries last year than on most occasions in the past despite what the final scoreline showed.

ODI cricket

India reached the final of the 2017 Champions trophy and the 2019 World Cup semi-final under Kohli

Kohli's record as captain in limited-overs cricket is as impressive if not more. Since he took charge in 2017, India have only lost two bilateral series in ODI cricket. Kohli's win percentage of 75% in 50-over cricket is much higher than anyone who has captained the Men in Blue for more than 10 matches. The next best on the list is Dhoni with a win percentage of 59.52%.

While India failed to win the two ICC tournaments under Kohli's captaincy, they were not far away from lifting the trophy. Kohli's men were only beaten in the final of the 2017 Champions trophy, and in an extremely close semi-final at the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Most would agree that both were a case of the team having a bad day; India were arguably the best team of both the tournaments prior to those encounters.

In fact, this year's World Cup is a great example of how much Kohli has grown as a captain. He was a lot more intelligent and forward-thinking with his decision-making than he used to be. Be it field placing or bowling changes, Kohli got his decisions right on most occasions and positively impacted each match.

Ultimately India were knocked out due to the top order collapsing; the failure to find a steady middle-order ended up costing the team. That's something that can definitely be blamed on the captain, but it was as much the fault of the coach, team management and the selectors as it was Kohli's.

Batting

As captain Kohli averages 61.19 with the bat in Test cricket and 80 in ODI cricket

Cricket history has seen a lot of instances where the burden of captaincy massively affected the individual performances of players. Some of the finest players to have graced the game have found it hard to continue performing at the same level after taking over leadership duties. One of the best examples of that is Sachin Tendulkar.

However, Kohli has barely been affected. If anything, the extra responsibility has only made him a better player.

18 out of his 25 Test centuries have come as captain. Moreover, his Test batting average as skipper is 61.19, which is a lot higher than his career average of 53.14. In fact, before taking charge of the team, his average in the five-day format was only 41.13.

A similar trend has been observed in 50-over cricket too. While he has taken the format by storm ever since his debut in 2008, the last few years have seen him only get better. While his career average of 60.31 is nothing short of astonishing, it climbs up to a remarkable 80 as captain.

Although Kohli has only led the team in 80 of the 239 ODIs he has played, 21 out of his 43 centuries have come as captain.

Brave decisions

A lot of people are bound to say that the quality of the side at Kohli's disposal is greater than any that Indian cricket has had before. While that may be a fair argument, Kohli deserves credit for making it stronger.

A noticeable change in his tenure has been how the pace bowling attack has grown by leaps and bounds. One would remember Varun Aaron being someone Kohli was heavily trying to develop in his first few series. While the Jharkhand pacer did not last long in the team, the message was clear: the focus was on pace.

It comes as no surprise how much the likes of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and even Umesh Yadav have improved after the change at the helm. While individuals deserve credit for their own work, it is also about the captain making the best use of them

The biggest success story has been the phenomenal rise of Jasprit Bumrah. The Mumbai Indians pacer has taken Test cricket by storm, and put up stunning performances in South Africa, England, Australia and West Indies.

But when he was given his debut at Cape Town last year, there were a lot of eyebrows raised. Not many saw him as a longer-format bowler. While Kohli is definitely lucky to have Bumrah, one has to ask how many captains would have taken a punt on him in Test cricket.

Similarly, in ODI cricket, he took the extremely brave decision of changing the status quo and dropping Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. He then introduced the wrist-spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Both of them were massive success stories from the start as they gave India an extremely potent attacking weapon in the middle overs. While they did not live up to the expectations at the World Cup, the tournament was disappointing for most slower bowlers. The fact that no full-time spinner featured in ICC's Team of the Tournament speaks volumes.

Change in mentality

While Dhoni's captaincy will go down in history as an iconic period for Indian cricket, there was one criticism of his leadership. Many accused him of being extremely defensive in his approach to Test cricket.

That immediately changed under Kohli. In his first game in charge at Adelaide, India almost chased down an impossible-looking target of 364 on the last day. They might have lost that day, but the fact that they tried to chase down the score rather than settling for a draw was a refreshing sight for many fans.

That has become the theme of Kohli's captaincy in whites. Under his regime, India have tried to play aggressive and result-oriented cricket. Decisions like trying Rohit Sharma at number three instead of Cheteshwar Pujara, or insisting on playing Hardik Pandya in South Africa and England, have repeatedly proven that.

In the process there have also been some calls which weren't the wisest, but over time Kohli has found the right balance.

Did he really take over a very good team?

Quite visibly, the current captain has an extremely strong team at his hands. But it would be unfair to say that he inherited a successful one.

India have been at the helm of the ICC Test rankings for quite a while now, but when Kohli took charge, they were ranked seventh. Similarly, in ODI cricket, in the time between the 2015 World Cup and the start of 2017 (when Kohli took charge), India only won one bilateral series apart from the Zimbabwe tour - against New Zealand at home. In this period, the Men in Blue lost a series against Bangladesh and a home series to South Africa, and were thrashed 4-1 in Australia.

Kohli's legacy

The statistics show that Kohli's numbers are better than those of any previous captain. But it is always important to view such figures in context. These lists rarely tell the full story, and judging a captain on just the number of wins would not be fair.

The most successful captain does not equate to the greatest captain. The latter is always a tag up for debate, and there are many different answers and opinions on it.

From Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev to Mohammed Azharuddin, Ganguly and Dhoni, every captain took over the team at a specific moment in the evolution of Indian cricket. Conditions have progressively got better to succeed, and hence Kohli having better numbers than his predecessors is not entirely surprising. Moreover, the quality of the opposition teams during each period and the conditions also play a part.

The fact remains that Kohli is yet to lift an ICC trophy as captain. There are a few obvious flaws in his leadership style, and some might argue they have cost India on big occasions. There is certainly some valid criticism of some key decisions he has taken over the past few years.

However, such massive success does not come without there being a good captain at the helm, even if he has the greatest team around him. While every IPL season there are trolls, criticism and skepticism over Kohli's captaincy, it is time that those doubts are silenced and he is given the credit he deserves.

Of course, when someone as great as Dhoni leaves the job, there are bound to be comparisons. But Kohli should be judged on his own merit. If people do that and solely consider his stint at the helm of the Indian team, it will paint a completely different picture.

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