Trial by fans of Virat Kohli's captaincy in T20Is was unfair: Aakash Chopra
India Today
Former India opener Aakash Chopra said there was unfair criticism about Virat Kohli's captaincy after India's early exit from T20 World Cup last year. Kohli was sacked as ODI captain following which he gave up Test captaincy as well.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra has said there was unfair criticism of Virat Kohli's captaincy, especially in the T20I format, saying that the star batter was subject to a trial by fans after India bowed out of the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Aakash Chopra had said he had analysed Virat Kohli's captaincy in the shorter formats of the game but that the former skipper was blamed for 'one bad day' in an unjust manner.
Virat Kohli stepped down as India's T20I captain after India exited the T20 World Cup without qualifying for the knockout stages in the UAE last year. India lost by 10 wickets to Pakistan in their opener and suffered a defeat to New Zealand in their subsequent game to crash out of an ICC event without making the knockout stages for the first time since 2012.
After Kohli stepped down from T20I captaincy, he was sacked as ODI captain as well with criticism over his white-ball captaincy coupling with communication issues between the star batter and the BCCI top brass. In an unforeseen manner, Kohli also quit as India's Test captain earlier this year following a series defeat in Sri Lanka.
"There was just one T20 World Cup, that he played as a captain, where we reached the semi-final (knocked out in Super 12). To be blamed because of just one bad day, it was unfair towards him," Akash Chopra said on ShareChat's audio chatroom session.
"Not that I am a Kohli captaincy fan, I saw flaws in his captaincy and criticized where required, but a trail by fans situation shouldn't have been created," he added.
Kohli finished with 30 wins in T20Is from 50 matches and is among the top 3 in terms of most successful India captains in T20Is.
