5 reasons why Virat Kohli should step down as captain

Recently, the Indian cricket team suffered an extremely bad defeat against England in the second Test of the five-match series held at Lord's in London.

They lost the match by a whopping innings and 159 runs to go down 2-0 in the series. The Indian batsmen were no match for the English bowlers, with all of them namely James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Sam Curran, and Chris Woakes performing well.

The fast bowlers did so well that Adil Rashid was not used at all.

After the first two Tests, a lot of questions have arisen over Virat Kohli's captaincy. There have been few questionable decisions regarding team selection, with Cheteshwar Pujara not chosen in the first Test and a few other decisions.

There have also been some questions raised about his tactics in both the Tests. He might be the best batsman in the side but we might need to see a change in captaincy to improve team India's fortunes in the future.

Here are five reasons why Kohli should step down as captain of the Test side.

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#5 Questionable team selection

As mentioned above, Cheteshwar Pujara was not included in the playing XI for the first Test, which was quite a baffling decision by Kohli and Shastri.

Pujara was India's best Test batsmen in the past few years and to drop him in the tough conditions of England was not a good decision.

Apart from this, we have often seen Kohli stick with players despite them not performing well over a long period of time. For example, Murali Vijay has been out of form for a long time now but is still persisted with, in the long format of the game.

#4 Youngsters not given a chance

Hanuma Vihari

Most of the players in the squad right now are above the age of 25 and a lot of them are above the age of 30.

While quite a few of them are not performing well, they continue to be included in the squad even when there are numerous youngsters who are waiting to get out on the field.

Youngsters like Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari, who have been in spectacular form, have not yet made their Test debut. Even Mayank Agarwal, who has been playing for many years now, has not been given a chance despite being in great form in the domestic circuit.

#3 Questionable tactics on field

There have been a lot of questionable tactics by Virat Kohli on the field while captaining the side. For example, most recently, Ravichandran Ashwin was not brought in to bowl for a long time in the second Test.

He was the best bowler in the first Test as he picked up seven wickets but did not pick up a single wicket in the second Test. If he was brought in to bowl earlier, we could have surely seen him pick up a few wickets.

Similarly, there have been other questionable tactics with regards to using a particular bowler effectively, and a few field placement issues as well.

#2 Batting won't be affected

He is performing exceptionally well with the bat as the captain of the side, having scored his first century in England in the first Test.

However, the good thing is that even if he does step down, his batting will not be affected.

He is committed to scoring runs for the country and he will continue to do so even if he plays under someone else.

#1 India need a change

The Indian side are likely to lose their second consecutive Test series outside India, with the previous one being against South Africa.

Clearly, something isn't working for India and they need a change desperately. There are a few players like Ajinkya Rahane or Ravichandran Ashwin who could be tried out as the captain of the side.

This would be a fresh and welcome change and could definitely work in favour for team India.