Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels Virat Kohli should not have decided to give up India’s T20 captaincy and also spoke against the idea of split-captaincy of the national team.
India will be led by two different captains after the T20 World Cup ends in November, with Kohli handling the Test and ODI sides while Rohit Sharma is expected to take over the reigns in the shortest format.
Kohli on Thursday announced his decision to step down as T20 captain after the World Cup, but Pathan reckons the 32-year-old should have carried on leading the side a bit longer.
“I am not a big believer of that (split captaincy), especially with our culture. I think there should be one captain, one leader across all formats.
“Yes Australian team and the New Zealand team have done it but their culture is different, our culture is very different. I believe having one leader always helps,” Pathan told CNN-News18.
Kohli took over the captaincy in white-ball cricket from MS Dhoni in 2017. He has so far led India in 45 T20Is out of which he has won 27 and lost 14 games. He has a win percentage of 65.11 as compared to Rohit, who has won 15 out of the 19 games he’s led India in to aggregate a win percentage of 78.94.
“I was surprised with the timing of it, but as a player, there are times when your brain tells you, you contemplate something, you take opinions of your family, your friends, your coaches.
“Then you get into making a big decision like that. I am sure he must have thought about it a lot. I wish him all the luck. I really hope that the Indian team wins the World Cup under his leadership then he leaves a legacy in white-ball cricket.”
“If he had held on to the white ball especially T20 cricket captaincy, he has so many opportunity as a leader to tell the world what kind of leader he is. I really thought he could have held on to it a bit longer,” Pathan added.
