Ex-Australia spinner explains why Virat Kohli giving up T20I captaincy is the 'right move'

Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg feels that it is the right move by Indian skipper Virat Kohli to give up the captaincy of the Indian team in T20 International, post the ICC T20 World Cup in UAE as he will be now able to focus only on the teams for the longer formats. According to Hogg, it is the right move by Kohli because there is too much pressure on the captain while leading the side in all three formats as Kohli is hailed whenever India wins and he is heavily criticized whenever India lose. Brad Hogg expressed his opinion while speaking on Hoggs Vlog, on his official YouTube channel.

As per Hogg, the team goes through many changes in the players while playing all three formats. Especially in the T20 formats, a huge influx of young players can be seen going in and out for the team. Hogg explained that it must be tough for Kohli to keep on his relationship as a skipper with the players in all three formats, so giving up the T20 captaincy would mean Kohli can focus only on the relationships with the players in the Test and ODI teams where the teams do not change much frequently. Hogg also spoke about how the ICC T20 World Cup can be an opportunity for Kohli for winning one big trophy in the T20 format.

'India wants to take on the world in Test cricket' says Brad Hogg

Hogg further explained Kohli’s reason for opting out of the T20 captaincy by pointing towards his recent statistics in Test cricket. In his vlog, Hogg said, "The thing that I like about this (Kohli’s decision) is that he has realized that his form in Test cricket has been struggling over the last five series. He hasn’t averaged over 40 in those five series, hasn’t got a hundred, things need to change. So, relinquishing a little bit of pressure by giving the captaincy of T20 away will free his mind up in that regard. Also, people out there have been saying India pulling out of the fifth Test match over there in England, they don’t care about Test cricket. Well, this move shows that they do care about Test cricket and they want to dominate that format moving forward. India are steaming along and want to take on the world in Test cricket and show their dominance in all three formats. So, very good move."

He further talked about Kohli’s T20 captaincy record as Kohli has a win percentage of 64.44% in the list of captains who have led their teams in at least 40 matches. He is second best to Afghanistan’s Asghar Stanikzai who play against relatively weaker teams than India. In ODIs Kohli is the third-best captain with a 68.43% win percentage behind late South African captain Hansie Cronje and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting. In Test cricket, Kohli has a 58.46% win percentage and is third best to Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Hogg concluded by saying that the above records show how good Kohli has been while leading India, and with more to come yet, Kohli’s captaincy records in ODIs and Tests will certainly improve even more.

Watch Brad Hogg's full vlog:

Image: PTI