The former Indian head coach, Sanjay Bangar, has expressed his surprise towards the decision of Virat Kohli stepping down as the red-ball captain of the national side after the team’s 2-1 series defeat in South Africa, despite being the most successful captain for the blue brigade in this format of the game.
His first game as a captain of the red-ball side came during the opening Test in Adelaide for the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in the 2014-15 season when their regular captain, MS Dhoni, was out of action due to injury. India had a chance to register a historic win by chasing a huge total in the fourth innings, but they fell short towards the end.
By the time Dhoni put the curtains down on his red-ball career during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Virat Kohli captained the team again during the New Year’s Test in Sydney, which ended in a draw due to bad weather.
“Virat Kohli could have continued to be the Test captain”- Sanjay Bangar
His first full series as the captain of the red-ball side came during the team’s trip to Sri Lanka in 2015. They didn’t make a great start in the three-match series, losing the opening game at Galle, as they were bundled out for just 112 in the fourth innings of the game, failing to chase 185 runs against the strong spin attack of the home side.
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They made a great comeback during the second game at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, registering a victory of 278 runs, before repeating the same great performance in the third and final game of the series at the Sinhalese Sports Club with a 117-run victory.
As a captain, Virat Kohli brought a different level of energy to the team, as the blue brigade mainly looked to focus on their pacers. The desire to do well overseas started under his captaincy. The likes of Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, and others showed their skill.
Before Virat Kohli was the captain of the side, India was a very nice team. They had blokes with good behaviors, but the Delhi-born brought fire among the players as they started to look into the eyes of the opponents. They never had such a huge problem in winning red-ball games at home, but under his leadership, they dreamt and got succeeded in registering wins in overseas games.
The cherry on the top of the cake was the 2018-19 series in Australia when they won their very first red-ball series on that soil and continued the same aggression in the 2020-21 series. The Lord’s victory on the fifth day, when an Indian pace bowling line-up went through the England batting side in the latter’s home turf in less than two sessions, displayed the level of improvement.
But suddenly, after losing the series, Virat Kohli decided to step down from the leadership role of the side as he looked to focus on scoring runs after going through a tough phase in his career after the era of COVID-19.
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The former Indian batter, Sanjay Bangar, felt that the 35-year-old could have continued to be the captain of the side for a little longer.
“Even though I feel that he (Virat Kohli) should have continued for slightly longer as a Test captain. Because he has captained India in 65 Test matches, and one of the things I feel that he could’ve continued to be the Test captain for a little longer.” The 51-year-old expressed in a video.
Sanjay Bangar said, “Virat Kohli could’ve continued to be the Test captain for a little longer”. (The Rao Podcast).pic.twitter.com/VcHgpOzVrG
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 25, 2024
Kohli finishes as the most successful captain for India in the red-ball format, winning 40 out of 68 games at a winning rate of 58.82%.
