Virat Kohli stepped down from the captaincy role, bringing an end to an illustrious seven-year long chapter via an emotional post on social media. The decision was announced after India's 2-1 drubbing in the Test series against South Africa, which many felt was a chance missed by the Asian giants against a comparatively inexperienced Proteas squad.
The announcement came as a shock to both active and present cricketers, the fans, who took to social media to thank Kohli for his services. Former India Test player and an avid user on Twitter Wasim Jaffer too extended his gratitude.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Jaffer lauded Kohli for doing “immensely well” and picked a quality, which according to him was never seen in any other Indian unit.
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"He has done immensely well as a captain. He led from the front and he is one of those guys who takes on challenges head on and there's no doubt that he did take a lot of challenges."
"The way he has led India in all three formats has been commendable. Even though we keep saying that he hasn't won a ICC trophy, other than that he has a great record as a leader, whether it's at home where he hasn't lost any series as a captain, he lost only two Test matches. Away from home he has got tremendous success," said Jaffer.
{{/usCountry}}"The way he has led India in all three formats has been commendable. Even though we keep saying that he hasn't won a ICC trophy, other than that he has a great record as a leader, whether it's at home where he hasn't lost any series as a captain, he lost only two Test matches. Away from home he has got tremendous success," said Jaffer.
{{/usCountry}}“As a white-ball captain he won T20 trophies in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Beating Australia in Australia was the icing on the cake for him as a leader. I think no sub-continent team has gone to Australia and beaten Australia. It was probably the highest point as a captain,” he added.
Jaffer also acknowledged Kohli's efforts in lifting the fitness among the Indian cricketers. He also spoke about the progress of Indian bowling, especially the “firepower” in the pace department, adding a lot of credit for it should be given to Kohli.
"The kind of culture he has brought to the Indian team and the fast-bowling firepower that India has become under him is tremendous, something which India never had."
"Now we've got such a high quality bowling attack and I think India has definitely got one of the best bowling attacks going around whether it's seaming conditions or spinning conditions," he added.
Jaffer further spoke about how the Indian team made progress under Kohli the captain and Ravi Shastri the coach.
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"I think the Indian team has got an attack to favor all kinds of conditions and a lot of credit needs to go to him (Virat Kohli) and Ravi Shastri also. Because I think they both kind-of complemented each other as captain and a coach," said Jaffer.
Speaking on the future leader in the longer format of the game, Jaffer believes Rohit Sharma will be the obvious choice but also picked three youngsters, whom the selectors can look out for the role.
"Rohit Sharma I feel will be the obvious choice right now for him to lead in all three formats but selectors in a year or two years time look for replacement."
“Or look for somebody to groom and the obvious name that comes to mind is Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul. And I would also take the name of Shreyas Iyer because I think these three guys have the potential to be Indian captain for the future,” he concluded.