Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that leaving captaincy would give Virat Kohli much needed to focus on his batting. Notable that the first test match between India and Sri Lanka will be the test match of his career.
His recent form hasn’t been great as he scored his last hundred in November 2019. Since January 2020, he scored 760 runs in 27 innings with an average of 28.14 which included only 6 fifties. And after the series loss in South Africa, he stepped down from the Test captaincy and now Rohit Sharma is all set to take over the job in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
“As not a captain, you can focus entirely on your batting”- Sunil Gavaskar
Speaking to Star Sports, Sunil Gavaskar stated that as a captain, one has to take care of many things which Virat wouldn’t be needed to do now. He further added that Virat would take a while to get used to in his new role as he captained India for such a long time.
Virat took over from MS Dhoni as a Test captain in January 2015 and in his 7-year stint, he captained India in 68 Tests with 40 wins and 17 losses.
“As a captain what happens is that you are concerned about everybody else. It’s just a natural thing, you are concerned about your bowlers’ forms, maybe there is a slight niggle injury, as a batting unit may be your No.4 or No.5 are not getting the runs, getting out badly,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“So, you might be scoring runs yourselves as a captain but you are always concerned about everybody else in the team. That is where you can’t focus on your batting. As not a captain, you can focus entirely on your batting. That is the biggest advantage that you can have.” he added
“But now I think it’s a question of him getting used to the fact that he is not calling the shots. As long as he is delivering the shots with the bat, nothing else is mattering,” he stated.
The first test match between India and Sri Lanka will begin on March 4 at Mohali. The second game will be a day-night game in Bengaluru starting on March 12.
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