“Was An Era Of High Expectation”: Ex-Australian Cricketer Offers Blunt Assessment Of Virat Kohli’s Captaincy Tenure

Virat Kohli's tenure as the white ball captain came into focus once again after a discussion on JioHotstar’s Rise of Champions, where the panelists talked about the gap between India's on-paper strengths and the trophies that did not arrive during Kohli's tenure.

Virat Kohli's captaincy tenure is often split into two separate narratives: a celebrated, aggressive Test run and a more debated white-ball record. On JioHotstar’s Rise of Champions, the panelists leaned more towards the latter.

Panelists, including Former Australian captain Aaron Finch, ex-India player Harbhajan Singh, and former IPL team coach Tom Moody, were of the opinion that Virat Kohli's tenure as the white ball captain was underwhelming, given the quality of the team he had to work with.

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Tom Moody On Virat Kohli's Captaincy

Tom Moody framed Kohli's white-ball era as the one that failed to live up to its expectations. He shared, "The Virat Kohli era was an era of high expectation, but ultimately, disappointment."

Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh seemed to echo his opinions and explained that the team should have won at least three to four trophies with the quality of the squad, and that while there must have been a reason why they didn't win trophies, no one could ever question the quality of the squad.

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Kohli's Captaincy Career

Kohli first assumed the Test captaincy in 2015 after MS Dhoni’s retirement and led India in 68 matches. He led the team to 40 wins, suffered 17 losses, and 11 matches were drawn. Notably, India registered the historic Test series win in Australia in 2018–19 under Virat Kohli's captaincy. India, however, failed to win the inaugural WTC final in 2021 against New Zealand.

Meanwhile, in the ODI, the RCB star captained in 95 matches, winning 65, losing 27, and tying one fixture. In T20Is, the former captain led India to win 30 matches out of 50 matches, suffering 16 defeats and two tied fixtures. Thus, despite boasting a stellar record as captain across all three formats, the trophy cabinet in Kohli's tenure remained mostly empty.