Recently, Virat Kohli has become India’s most successful Test captain with 28 victories as a Test captain. However, the former wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani believes that Virat Kohli still has a long way to go to become the best Indian captain ever.
Under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, India have achieved many great successes in international cricket. In early 2018, India won their first-ever ODI bilateral series in South Africa. Later, in early this year, Kohli led the Indian side to win their first-ever Test and first-ever ODI bilateral series on the Australian soil. Under his captaincy, India also have earned many successes at home as well as on the Asian soil.
However, Kohli-led India haven’t won an ICC trophy yet. But it doesn’t mean that his team hasn’t performed well in the ICC tournaments. Under his captaincy, India lost the final of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and the semifinal of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019. But mostly India dominated in both those ICC tournaments.
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Recently, in the USA and West Indies tour, Kohli-led India outclassed the Windies in all the international series. At first, they won the three-match T20I series by 3-0 and three-match ODI series by 2-0. Later, India just finished that Caribbean tour with the 2-0 victory in the two-match Test series.
India’s latest Test victory against Windies at Kingston was Virat Kohli’s 28th Test victory as captain. With that victory, Kohli became the most successful Indian Test captain after surpassing MS Dhoni (27 Test victories as captain).
MS Dhoni acclaimed as the best captain India ever had – Syed Kirmani
However, Syed Kirmani is not ready yet to acknowledge that Kohli is the greatest Indian captain. The former Indian wicketkeeper believes that MS Dhoni is still the best-ever captain of the Indian national cricket team.
According to My Nation, Kirmani said, “In every era, there has been a captain with different individuals. When Dhoni was the captain, he succeeded in all the three formats (Test, ODI, T20I) and took the Indian team to the highest level (No. 1). He was acclaimed as the best captain India ever had.”
Give Virat Kohli some more time to achieve many more records
Syed Kirmani believes that Virat Kohli still has a long way to go to beat MS Dhoni in captaincy.
Kirmani added, “Give him (Kohli) some more time to achieve many more records. You cannot acclaim him as the best Indian captain ever. It is Dhoni who has been acclaimed as the best Indian captain ever, so far. So, Kohli has a long way to go. Easily, five more years are there with Kohli as India skipper.”
The 30-year-old Virat Kohli has led India in 153 international matches (48 Tests, 80 ODIs and 25 T20Is). Out of those matches, India have won 101 games (28 Tests, 58 ODIs and 15 T20Is).