How Virat Kohli fared as the captain of Team India?

Virat Kohli announced his desire to step down from the captaincy of Team India across all formats, sending the cricketing world into haywire. Several analysts and statisticians started to compare Kohli against the best captains in the world. At the same time, many who disliked Kohli's aggression and personality cheered with joy.

While all of the debates, comparisons, and stats will continue to be talked about until the BCCI announces a new face for the team for Test cricket, we need to understand how Kohli was as captain.

If we are purely talking about numbers, Kohli is the fourth-best captain in the world on the all-time list. Kohli scored runs almost everywhere and won so many series that India's losses received more attention and media after a point than their wins.

Kohli's captaincy style

"There are usually three types of cricket captains, funky captains who tend to be proactive and try to be attacking. Then there are conservative captains who tend to protect runs than take wickets. The last type is ball chasing captains who move their fields based on where the earlier shot is hit," analyzes Jarrod Kimber, the Australian-English journalist, "And every captain usually falls into two of these three criteria."

But when you try to analyze Kohli's captaincy, there is no measure on which type of captain he was. He was heavily criticized after the recent India-South Africa series, where a number of runs were scored in the third man region. But those runs indicate bowlers asking tough questions to batters and getting unlucky simultaneously.

Kohli's role in India's success

The Indian cricket team has a massive pool of talented players, playing their best cricket almost every time. Kohli was lucky to have players like Ashwin, Jadeja, Bumrah, Shami and Ishant in his bowling unit with new additions Shardul, Siraj and Axar Patel. He has supremely talented Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Pant, and for a large part of his captaincy, heavily reliable Pujara and Rahane in his batting unit.

If we look at all these players, one can easily argue that Kohli was just the lucky captain who had an opportunity to lead a team of really talented cricketers. Why should he be acclaimed for success with such a great team?

To understand this, we must look at the journey of building this squad. When Kohli took over the reins in 2014, many of these players were part of the team, yet Team India did not have that frequent success in the past.

Kohli stands out simply because he pushed these players to be at their absolute best at all times on the field. Kohli led from the front, in every aspect, physically or mentally, or giving absolutely everything every time they walked out of the pavilions.

How does Virat Kohli rank among current captains?

Steve Smith (or currently Pat Cummins), Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Babar Azam, Dean Elgar and Dimuth Karunaratne are the best players in their squad, captaining their respective teams. But when we look at Team India, that is not the case.

Rohit Sharma has overshadowed Kohli in post-pandemic cricket. Indian bowling has two leaders, Ashwin and Bumrah, who diligently share these duties. So what did Kohli bring to the table that justified his captaincy?

Virat Kohli gave India a habit of success and chasing almost impossible wins. In his first match as captain, Kohli charged on the Australian attack chasing an Everest-like 364 on the final day. Even though India failed short of the target, that innings gave the team a new direction for their seven years of continual success.

Virat Kohli was not a great captain. He captained a great side to become the most incredible traveling test team globally. Under his captaincy, winning test matches almost became a routine for Team India, sometimes even in his absence.

His captaincy was so aggressive that even in the losing causes, Virat Kohli's voice was the loudest on the field. His captaincy was so passionate that it forced the whole of Australia and England to applaud for his efforts. His captaincy was so mediocre that it left the legacy of the greatest Indian captain that will weigh a mountain for anyone stepping in his shoes.