Virat Kohli to tour West Indies not to secure captaincy, but to boost the Indian team’s morale after 2019 World Cup semi-final exit
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Ever since Team India’s semi-final exit from the 2019 World Cup, several reports have surfaced on issues ranging from MS Dhoni’s retirement to rifts between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma within the team.
One such report, allegedly from a BCCI source had confirmed that Kohli would be rested from the upcoming limited-overs versus West Indies, with Rohit Sharma to shoulder the captaincy duties. But, Kohli’s decision to lead the team throughout the tour, brushed those reports under the carpet.
Yet another report surfaced after team’s selection was that the Indian skipper has decided to lead the team across all formats is because he wanted to secure his captaincy, after several voices demanded Rohit to be handed over the responsibility of leading the team in the limited-overs format.
Now, a source close to the recent developments has rubbished this report as well.
“Kohli to tour West Indies to boost the team’s morale”- Source
Speaking to Timesnownews.com, the source said the ace batsman decided to go to the Windies in a bid to boost the team’s shattered morale following its shock defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final.
Team India had to bid adieu to their World Cup campaign after bowing down before the Kiwis in the semi-final. Having lost the last three matches of the league stage, almost everyone had expected a miracle from New Zealand to turn the things around against the table-toppers after the end of the league stage.
Kohli, who fell for just one in that game, didn’t want to leave his team with low morale. “The dressing room morale was extremely low following India’s exit from the semi-final of the World Cup. Virat didn’t want to leave the team alone in low morale on the next immediate tour (versus West Indies) and took the onus on himself to bring positiveness back into the team,” Timesnownews.com quoted the source as saying.
“The World Cup exit had demoralised everyone within the team and Virat thought it would be unfair on his part to stay away from the team at the moment. So he decided to go to the West Indies and lead from the front rather than leaving the team alone when it needs its leader the most,” the sources added.
