Ask any Indian supporter. Who do you think is the best batsman in the world currently? You will get the answer immediately. Who do you think who can perform under pressure? You will get the answer immediately. Who do you think is the best Indian captain? You will get the answer after a slight pause. In all the cases, the answer will be Virat Kohli. For the Indian supporter, everything starts and ends with Kohli. I will leave the topic of who the best batsman currently is for another day. As for the other two, I certainly do not think Kohli is the best Indian captain nor do I think that he can perform under pressure. Let me analyse Kohli’s captaincy and the tag of performing under pressure.
Virat Kohli just as a batsman alone is certainly among the best currently. His exploits in every form of the game in every country stands as testimony. He has hundreds against all kinds of attack and some of them were scored on pitches that helped the bowlers. However, performing under pressure is something Kohli still lacks.
Performing under pressure
Kohli always had this tag that was attached to him wherever he played whomever he played. That when the pressure is high, Kohli is at his best. However, in reality, this is far from the truth. Kohli has seldom performed under pressure. Infact, because of his failure, he had added additional pressure on the rest of the batsmen. There are numerous instances of such happenings.
The instances where Kohli failed to win Tests
Kohli has never played a match winning innings in the 4th innings of a test match till now. As recently as 3 years ago, Kohli had multiple chances to win tests and that too in a foreign land. He had a couple in South Africa and a further couple in England. The South African series was a low scoring affair. Not once did either team manage to score more than 400. All the games were closely contested as well. Ultimately, South African won that series 2-1.
In the very first test, India were set a target of 208 to win. It was reasonable to expect India to score that many runs and win the game with Kohli in the team but Kohli scored only 28 and what was worst was that he wasn’t even the top scorer in that innings. In the same series, in the 2nd test, India were again asked to chase in the final innings. This time the target was somewhat stiff. 289. Kohli scored a brilliant 153 in the first innings but fell for a single digit score in the 2nd innings. In the same year, against England Kohli had 2 more opportunities to score match winning innings and he wasn’t able to.
Kohli’s failures in important ICC events
During the 2015 World Cup, India proceeded serenely till the semi-finals when they came up against Australia. Australia had piled on a massive 330. India in response were 76 – 0 when Dhawan got out. In walked Kohli. Being the best batsman in the team, he was expected to take the bull by the horns and runaway with it. Instead, he got out immediately thereby converting a good start into a pressure situation. Likewise, in the 2019 World Cup, again in the semi-finals, this time against New Zealand, India had lost Rahul very early. Kohli followed him within the space of one over thereby increasing the pressure on the rest. The 2017 Champions Trophy finals is painful to remember.
The bottom line is that Kohli is susceptible to pressure as any other cricketer and he certainly does not deliver under pressure.
Kohli’s captaincy credentials
Some amount of credit must be given to Kohli for evolving a pace bowling based attack. India now have a decent pace bowling attack that is capable of taking 20 wickets. However, the results under his captaincy is not at all encouraging. He is yet to win a series in the SENA countries. Yes, some will site the 2018 win in Australia but we all know it wasn’t a complete victory. He is now lost couple of series in New Zealand, in South Africa and was humiliated in the last series in England. Added to that, he lost the only test in Australia where he was the captain. He has now lost 4 consecutive tests. Most of his wins as captain have come in India and West Indies and Sri Lanka.
His captaincy in limited overs is even more baffling. He does not have a world title to boast about in multiple attempts. He had also been the captain of RCB for 8 years but hasn’t won the IPL even a single time. It really is a miracle how RCB have retained him as the captain despite so many failures.
Conclusion
Kohli must understand that he is not that good a captain and will have to resign voluntarily. The BCCI will not have the nerve to remove him. Already his outrageous on the field manners is causing a lot of concern.