Not leading India to a title victory in any ICC (International Cricket Council) tournament will remain a chink in the armour for former captain Virat Kohli’s captaincy career. Kohli, who has been exceptional with the bat in hand in these global competitions, did lead India U-19 to a World Cup victory in 2008 but couldn’t replicate such an “ultimate” success with the senior team.
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Kohli, who has participated in a total of 13 ICC tournaments across formats at the highest level, had led India four times between 2017-2021. While India reached the knockout round thrice, they were eliminated after the league stage during ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE.
Since their last title victory in an ICC tournament a decade ago, India have qualified for knockouts as many as nine times (almost certain to do it for the ninth time in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship). Out of the eight previous instances, former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and current captain Rohit Sharma were the leaders thrice and once respectively.
Virat Kohli, who never won any ICC tournament as captain, prioritizes cultural change over winning World Cups
All this fixation around winning global tournaments, however, seems to be beyond Kohli’s understanding. Not that he treats World Cups lightly but he recently revealed having a larger picture in mind during his 213-match captaincy stint spanning across almost nine years.
Answering Danish Sait’s question on RCB Podcast, Kohli didn’t provide a precise answer around feeling hurt for not winning an ICC tournament as captain. Instead, the 34-year old player laid emphasis on having successfully built a “team culture”, whose benefits will be reaped for a longer time duration than winning a tournament.
“I captained Champions Trophy 2017. I captained 2019 World Cup. I captained Test Championship 2021. I mean we lost the last [2021] T20 World Cup [where] we didn’t qualify. We reached the finals of 2017 Champions Trophy, semis of World Cup [2019], final of Test Championship [2019-2021] and I was considered as a failed captain [smiles],” Kohli said on RCB Podcast.
“I never judged myself from that point of view. What we ended up achieving as a team, as cultural change, for me, it it always gonna be a matter of pride because a tournament happens for a certain period of time but a culture happens for a long period of time. And for that, you need consistency. For that, you need more character than just winning a tournament.”
Kohli, who expressed gratitude for being part of teams which won ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and ICC Test Mace five times, sounded satisfied for all his achievements in the professional field. Not wanting to dwell much about what he couldn’t achieve, Kohli made it a point to say “I’m not mad for my trophy cabinet to be full”.
How did the conversation around Virat Kohli not winning an ICC tournament start?
Before Kohli stepped down as India’s T20I captain and RCB’s captain within days, there used to be immense chatter around his inability to win an ICC trophy as captain. As a result, critics would attack him time and again due to this vulnerability even while he was leading India.
What also hadn’t worked in Kohli’s favour was the lack of an Indian Premier League title at Royal Challengers Bangalore in spite of leading them for nine full seasons. With current India captain Rohit Sharma leading Mumbai Indians to an IPL title for a record five times, there was buzz aplenty across social media platforms back then with respect to him replacing Kohli as India’s T20I captain.
How important is winning a World Cup in Cricket?
Very. Always was. Is. Always will be.
For a contemporary cricketing superpower like India, it is all the more imperative to win World Cups a lot more frequently now. Considering how a captain dominates proceedings in cricket, he will doubtlessly also have to cope condemnation as a ramification of the same.
Bearing in mind how India were consistently inconsistent with their combinations during both World Cups in 2019 and 2021, there was never going to be a way for Kohli to fend off as captain.
