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‘Look at the history of Indian cricket': Former all-rounder warns opposition of 'Virat Kohli 3.0'
The former India all-rounder expects Virat Kohli to pass inputs to stand-in captain KL Rahul, citing both the individuals share a great “rapport”.
After relinquishing captaincy duties, Virat Kohli will play his first match as a player in the first ODI against South Africa in Paarl. The 33-year-old had stepped down as T20I skipper after the conclusion of the World Cup last year and soon after that he was sacked as ODI captain. Now in the ongoing tour in South Africa, the star batter decided to step down from Test captaincy as well, thus bringing an end to a glorious seven-year-old stint.
As Kohli is playing his first game as a player and not the captain anymore, former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar feels it will take the 33-year-old "some amount of time" to adapt. He, however, expects the 33-year-old to pass inputs to stand-in captain KL Rahul, citing both the individuals share a great “rapport”.
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“It's not easy straightaway being a captain for a long period and then playing as a player. He is not going to be in the circle at certain point, he'll have to man the boundary. When you have time between the ball he might wonder what he would have done, maybe the changes or what he would have said to the team during breaks or before the game. So those are things that will linger on for some amount of time, it's not gonna go away in a jiffy," said Bangar on Star Sports when asked about the transition.
"But KL Rahul the guy who's leading at the moment has got great rapport with Virat and I believe because of the rapport he can easily pass on the inputs during match time,” the former cricketer added.
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Sharing his thoughts on what lies ahead for Kohli with the captaincy burden no longer there, Bangar cited the examples of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar and explained how giving up the leadership role had a positive impact on their batting.
“Virat the kind of phase he is in a good four-five years of cricket remain if not more. Look at the history of Indian cricket Rahul Dravid gave up captaincy. Sachin Tendulkar gave up captaincy and they continued to play for a longer period and maybe their performance also increased."
"The way I look, Virat Kohli is fabulous as a leader and he did that job really well for over six years. Now it's time to unveil Virat Kohli 3.0 because he can be as damaging a batsman with no responsibility. So I look forward to some great batting performances from him because Virat Kohli the batsman is what sets the world on fire,” he added.
