'I was considered a failed captain' - Virat Kohli

Former India captain Virat Kohli has brought a ruthless winning mindset into Indian cricket. Kohli brought some changes as well like – a focus on fitness, the importance to prioritise the World Cup at the expense of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and workload management among others as well. However, since Team India couldn’t win a single trophy under Kohli as the captain, the board sacked him as captain of the ODI side after he stepped down from the role in the T20Is as well.

However, the veteran also had shared that he was informed 90 minutes before the selection committee meeting that he was being removed as the ODI captain of India, which sparked a huge chaos and difference of opinions between the then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and chief selector Chetan Sharma as well. Speaking about the whole episode, Kohli said that he was considered a failed captain since he couldn’t win a single ICC tournament for the country as well. According to Kohli, captaincy is about building a culture rather than winning a trophy, as it is a short-term thing.

Speaking on RCB Podcast Season 2, “Look, you play to win tournaments. I captained in Champions Trophy 2017, 2019 World Cup, I captained in World Test Championship, and T20 World Cup in 2021. After three [four] ICC tournaments, I was considered as a failed captain.”

“I never judged myself from that point of view; what we ended up achieving as a team and as a cultural change that always going to be a matter of pride for me. A tournament happens for a certain period of time but a culture happens over a long period of time and for that, you need consistency for that you need more characters than just winning a tournament,” Virat Kohli elaborated.

Virat Kohli, who has won a couple of ICC tournaments as a player under MS Dhoni’s captaincy (ICC World Cup trophy in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013 ), considered himself lucky that at least he has a couple of titles under his name as well.

“I won a World Cup as a player. I won the Champions Trophy as a player. I have been part of the team that has won five Test maces. If you look at that point of view there have been people, who have never won a World Cup,” Virat Kohli further said.

However, with all focus being on the ICC Cricket World Cup this year which is returning to India, and is scheduled to take place later this year, Virat Kohli and the current captain Rohit Sharma would want to give their best shot considering this could be their last 50-over World Cup as well.