Virat Kohli has won nothing as a leader: Gautam Gambhir

[Gollum]

LINK (HT)

 

Quote

Speaking in the latest episode of Star Sports’ Cricket Connected, former India batsman Gautam Gambhir said that Kohli still has a lot to achieve in his career. On being asked if there are still a few milestones left for the 31-year-old, Gambhir replied: “Lots, in a team sport.”

He added: “You can keep scoring your own runs. There are people like Brian Lara who’s got so many runs. People like Jacques Kallis who have won nothing, Virat Kohli, at the moment, has won nothing to be honest, as a leader.”

“He has a lot to achieve. He can keep scoring his own runs. But for me, in a team sport, till the time you don’t win those big trophies, you will never be considered... probably you will never fulfill your entire career,” Gambhir further said.

The 38-year-old further went on to add that Kohli needs to realise that all his players are different individuals and he needs to figure out what best use could he make of each of them.

“He’s different from the rest. Probably a lot of other people might not have the same ability that Virat Kohli has. As a leader, the most important quality which he needs to have is start taking players as they are. Don’t compare them, or don’t compare their intensity to his intensity. Because every individual is different,” Gambhir said.

“Every individual has its pros and cons, his own strength and weaknesses. That is what makes a team sport really, really fascinating. You got to gel everyone together and try to bring the best out of everyone else.

“Mohammed Shami can never be Jasprit Bumrah. Or Ishant Sharma can never be Jasprit Bumrah. Or KL Rahul can never be Virat Kohli. For that matter, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, all these guys probably can never match to Virat Kohli’s intensity, and talent as well,” he added.

“But how to get the best out of them, and figuring out those situations will help him, and prepare him the best for the world titles, and that is only when they can actually win it,” the former India batsman further said.

 

[Gollum]

Gambo is so honest, no BS or ass-kissing, a rare trait among our ex-cricketers. 

[Rasgulla]

True he hasn't won anything in white ball cricket. Other than series win against AUS without Smith and Warner nothing noticeable.  

[Gollum]

1 minute ago, Rasgulla said:

True he hasn't won anything in white ball cricket. Other than series win against AUS without Smith and Warner nothing noticeable.  

After his first 5 years as skipper MSD's achievements

- ODI WC

- WT20

- CT

- Epic drawn series in RSA against their full strength ATG side

- Series win in NZ

- Young blood, ruthless elimination of oldies

 

He gets flak for the 0-8, some WT20 failures, Eng 2012 but at least we had big accomplishments.....

 

Even in IPL he made CSK a war machine while Kohli has reduced his franchise to a stale joke. 

[Gollum]

Sachin was a pathetic leader but at least had some shame, no delusions or lust for power either....admirable traits. Kohli is an insecure, petty brat, he will burn Indian cricket to the ground if he is removed from captaincy. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Gollum

[Suhaan]

Kohli is epic example of "neechta"

[Ankit_sharma03]

Soon kohli n shastri will say - world cup kya hai, sab moh maaya hai. 

[maniac]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Sachin was a pathetic leader but at least had some shame, no delusions or lust for power either....admirable traits. Kohli is an insecure, petty brat, he will burn Indian cricket to the ground if he is removed from captaincy. 

Disagree. Sachin was a mediocre captain. He was a great leader till his last match. Small distinction.  The glue that held it all together.

Edited June 15, 2020 by maniac

[Manny_Pacquiao]

 

Manny_pacquiao's OBJECTIVE analysis of kohli's captaincy:

 

 

Positives:

 

- Supporting and encouraging fast bowlers, especially in test cricket. He values fast bowling more than any other indian captain. What was traditionally a weakness is now a strength. He somehow converted ishant sharma into a useful test match bowler, which was unthinkable.

 

- Fitness. He has the entire team going to the gym, doing lifts and eating clean diets. I'm old enough to remember the indian team not giving a **** about fitness and NEVER going to the gym. They were afraid to get 'injured' and didn't think gym-work was needed to play cricket. Laxman, dravid, sehwag, ganguly were very good batsmen, but couldn't run 5 metres without breaking down. Dravid and laxman were probably the slowest runners between the wickets. Laxman and dravid's "fitness" routine was stretching and some yoga. Bowlers don't get injured anywhere near as often as they used to.

 

He actually made fitness a criteria for selection, something we never saw from any indian captain in the past.

 

- Performance. Captaincy made him a better batsman. How many indian batsmen actually improved their averages after becoming captain? Dhoni aside, the answer is none. Azhar, sachin, ganguly, dravid all had lower averages as captains. The additional responsibility hasn't affected kohli at all, he's a run machine in all formats. Nobody can question his place in the team, like we frequently did with ganguly and dravid for example.

 

- Stats. He has the best win % of any indian captain in ODIs, test, t20. Overall, his win % is among the best in history. He has a great team, and you could argue that they could win without him. But still very impressive.

 

- Accomplishments. Test cricket is irrelevant now, but he won a test series in australia and brought india back to 'unbeatable' status at home with easy white-washes over England, south africa, new zealand and a 2-1 win against australia. He also won a ODI series in South africa 1-5, ODI series in new zealand 1-4. Those are the best results india has ever had in those countries.

 

 

Negatives:

 

- Selfishness. He built the team around himself and refused to introduce quality young batsmen. Every indian captain before him would support younger batsmen by giving them at least 2 full seasons to prove themselves. Kohli refused to support Rahul, rahane, pant, rayudu, iyer, nair, mayank agarwal, etc. Out of all these excellent batsmen, the only one who really established himself is rahul, and he's STILL playing out of position.

 

Ganguly stopped opening to play sehwag at the top of the order. Dravid became a wicket-keeper to accomodate kaif as a 7th batsman. Dhoni became a full-time lower order batsman so gambhir and kohli could bat at 3/4, raina, yusuf at 5/6, etc.

 

His refusal to play younger batsmen is almost suspicious. Never, at any point in history, has india's batting lineup looked this weak. It's almost as if he doesn't want anyone outperforming him. A more critical person would argue that he's trying to destroy the careers of younger, more talented batsmen. India's tradition of producing great batsmen is under threat, with kohli himself being the last and final one.

 

 

- Awful team selection. He consistently picks the WRONG team. Even in tests, he dropped pujara, rahane and bhuvaneshwar in SA, when they could have easily won India one of the first 2 test matches. He didn't get the lineup right in england, which led to a 1-4 defeat. In ODIs, he had THREE years to find a number 4, and he never found one. So many questionable decisions, especially in big games. Other indian captains always picked the best possible lineup, even when the results weren't in their favor. Kohli has no common sense.

 

- Clueless on-field captain, still can't set a field or read the game. We can complain about dhoni playing in the one day team, but the truth is....kohli DOESN'T KNOW HOW SET A FIELD. Kohli would rely on dhoni to captain the team and set the fields, especially when the spinners were operating. Kohli has no idea how to contain batsmen in limited overs, and he gives up VERY EASILY - something we frequently see in IPL matches. His bowling changes are without logic or thought, he never chooses the right bowler for the opposing batsman.

 

The 'fighting spirit' and never say die attitude we saw from him as a batsmen, is NEVER visible in his on-field captaincy. He panics very easily and is surprisingly defensive. In test matches, this is less of an issue because conditions are rigged in favor of bowlers.

 

- Prioritizing a dead format. I get the feeling kohli doesn't value winning the world cup anywhere near as much as other indian captains did. Ganguly, Tendulkar and dravid would have given their left testicle for a world cup, MS dhoni built his career around the one-day format. Kohli seems to take test cricket more seriously than others, which makes no sense when you consider that NOBODY IN INDIA GIVES A F*** about test cricket. Possibly because kohli won a world cup very early in his career, and doesn't have the desperation to win one?

 

- Inability to take criticism and own up to his mistakes. Kohli deliberately lost the champions trophy final to get rid of anil kumble. He constantly justifies his failures by saying that "We value our PROCESSES and not the results." Abey bhen ke lode, if your 'PROCESSES' aren't delivering tournament wins, maybe your "processes" are s***? Maybe you should re-think your processes? How the hell can anyone say that they don't look at results when competitive sport is a RESULT-ORIENTED profession. He's insulting everyone's intelligence.

 

To be fair, other indian captains were similarly hard-headed in public. But the difference is, they were held accountable. Kohli isn't. Fine, Indian cricket is a vehicle for promoting commercial interests, results aren't everything. But kohli, by results alone, is not a very good captain, he's an underachiever.

 

Conclusion

 

Kohli is an excellent batsman, combining a genuine love for the game with a competitive zeal. His pursuit of personal glory enabled him to reach unthinkable heights, and he has redefined batting standards in the modern era. He is capable of leading by example, but his self-obsessed nature and conventional thinking often limits his abilities as captain, particularly in situations where he has to inspire others. He is capable of producing exceptional results with a group of strong individuals, but his character isn't suited to the responsibility of selflessly building a team for the future.

 

Somebody please forward this to the BCCI.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Manny_Pacquiao

[Gollum]

6 minutes ago, maniac said:

Disagree. Sachin was a mediocre captain. He was a great leader till his last match. Small distinction.  The glue that held it all together.

Agree, should have written skipper but you understand what I was trying to say....just following the thread title and went with the flow. 

[Ankit_sharma03]

10 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

He somehow converted ishant sharma into a useful test match bowler, which was unthinkable.

he didnt, jason gillespie did 

Link - https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/sports-news-ishant-sharma-credits-jason-gillespie-for-providing-him-with-solutions/344800

[Jimmy Cliff]

7 hours ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

I get the feeling kohli doesn't value winning the world cup anywhere near as much as other indian captains did. Ganguly, Tendulkar and dravid would have given their left testicle for a world cup,

I wonder how much of that is down to Kohli winning a WC (and a CT for that matter) so early on in his career. Maybe the core of this team is "content" already with winning these trophies (Rohit and Dhoni have won the T20 WC too) and have pretty much decided that the rest of their stint with the national side will be spent on "career management". The ICC trophies will be merely a bonus. Just thinking out loud.

[Ankit_sharma03]

7 hours ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

Kohli deliberately lost the champions trophy final to get rid of anil kumble.

Absolutely not, one thing u have to give it to the guy is his passion to win which seems to be more then many i have seen. 

No captain will do such thing , they all are smart enough to knw that they are ruining their own reputation as well with loosing. 

7 hours ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

I get the feeling kohli doesn't value winning the world cup anywhere near as much as other indian captains did. Ganguly, Tendulkar and dravid would have given their left testicle for a world cup,

Cant disagree more 

Finals are about keeping nerves which is where kohli fails and so did ganguly. U need calm head like dhoni or even rohit. Kohli wants it bad and with every loss the desire grows more. The desperation leads to nerves and players overtry, as every cricketer will always tell u keep it simple and its all about pressure. Ganguly lost some 13 finals that didnt mean he didnt care, just that he didnt knew how to. Same is the case with south africa with every defeat it becomes a mental block. Nerves is the single reason why pakistan has a horrible record against in India in world tournaments, coz they try extra and in that process they end up messing it. 

 

 

 

 

[Rasgulla]

10 hours ago, Gollum said:

After his first 5 years as skipper MSD's achievements

- ODI WC

- WT20

- CT

- Epic drawn series in RSA against their full strength ATG side

- Series win in NZ

- Young blood, ruthless elimination of oldies

 

He gets flak for the 0-8, some WT20 failures, Eng 2012 but at least we had big accomplishments.....

 

Even in IPL he made CSK a war machine while Kohli has reduced his franchise to a stale joke. 

He doesn't have that captaincy brain. Its not his fault. Sadly we don't have anyone as consistent as him as a player. Rohit is doing very well for last few years but torch should have passed on to him when MS retired from captaincy back in 2017. 

 

Rohit 

- Had success with MI in IPL

 - Many players came out and spoke about how helpful he was (KL Recently)

 

Kohli 

- Other than 2016 where he was untouchable for the whole year. RCB has been a failure under his captaincy. He is the main reason. 

- Constant chopping and changing 

- He had 2 years for that #4 #5 spots still couldn't manage to find proper players to fill those spots. For me that's a failure on his behalf which         eventually led to our exit in 2019WC

 

 

This Video explains everything about him. Pant was rightfully dropped from white ball cricket but some of the decisions he makes are very questionable about other players.

 

 

[Rasgulla]

10 hours ago, Gollum said:

Gambo is so honest, no BS or ass-kissing, a rare trait among our ex-cricketers. 

He doesn't have any interest in posts for BCCI while rest of them do. I don't blame them tbh. If Rest of them spoke out their mind they ll be in trouble.

[Manny_Pacquiao]

10 hours ago, Jimmy Cliff said:

I wonder how much of that is down to Kohli winning a WC (and a CT for that matter) so early on in his career. Maybe the core of this team is "content" already with winning these trophies (Rohit and Dhoni have won the T20 WC too) and have pretty much decided that the rest of their stint with the national side will be spent on "career management". The ICC trophies will be merely a bonus. Just thinking out loud.

I agree. They don't have any desperation to win it. I get the feeling there is zero planning for a world cup.

 

Compare it with the way India prepared themselves to play the world cup in 2011...players were picking and choosing games, and squad selection for every series was specifically planned with the world cup in mind. The whole team was looking to 'peak' at the world cup, and they did (more or less).

 

Competition is weaker nowadays, india can win most matches without really trying, even with an 'incomplete' team. And fans/media don't really complain if the team is out at the semi-final stage, as long as they play good cricket to get there (which they usually do).

[Manny_Pacquiao]

10 hours ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

Absolutely not, one thing u have to give it to the guy is his passion to win which seems to be more then many i have seen. 

No captain will do such thing , they all are smart enough to knw that they are ruining their own reputation as well with loosing. 

Cant disagree more 

Finals are about keeping nerves which is where kohli fails and so did ganguly. U need calm head like dhoni or even rohit. Kohli wants it bad and with every loss the desire grows more. The desperation leads to nerves and players overtry, as every cricketer will always tell u keep it simple and its all about pressure. Ganguly lost some 13 finals that didnt mean he didnt care, just that he didnt knew how to. Same is the case with south africa with every defeat it becomes a mental block. Nerves is the single reason why pakistan has a horrible record against in India in world tournaments, coz they try extra and in that process they end up messing it. 

 

 

 

 

 

He had a 'passion to win' when he was fighting to reach the top. But after he became captain, he has reached the top and has nothing left to achieve. He can do whatever he likes. So if he has a coach like kumble questioning him, he removes the coach. BCCI had no leadership at the time, so there was nobody who could discipline Kohli.

 

There's never any backlash against kohli's failures in big tournaments because he scores meaningless 100s against SL/WI a few weeks later. He also feeds many interviews to the media and keeps them happy.

 

 

You are confusing kohli's motivation to score runs as a batsman, with his motivation to win trophies as a captain. Kohli is not a natural leader, he doesn't care about anything but himself. He'll work hard to score runs, but he doesn't really care if others do well or not.

 

Indian players always say that kohli is never angry with us after a loss, he doesn't speak to players about their performances, doesn't tell us what to do, etc. That's because kohli has no interest in seeing others improve. He's very different from ganguly, dravid, sachin or even dhoni - who would force players around them to improve, tell them what to do, and question their decision-making.

[Ankit_sharma03]

9 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

He had a 'passion to win' when he was fighting to reach the top. But after he became captain, he has reached the top and has nothing left to achieve. He can do whatever he likes.

every captain every player wants to win tournament, everyone

9 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

There's never any backlash against kohli's failures in big tournaments because he scores meaningless 100s against SL/WI a few weeks later. He also feeds many interviews to the media and keeps them happy.

 

coz his pwn performance is superlative, a captain place mostly comes under doubt when his runs or wkts dry up or team keeps loosing. We win a lot of games useless ones though but we do.

N virat gets called out for those tournament 

10 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

You are confusing kohli's motivation to score runs as a batsman, with his motivation to win trophies as a captain. Kohli is not a natural leader, he doesn't care about anything but himself. He'll work hard to score runs, but he doesn't really care if others do well or not.

no ur confusion desire with nerves, he just cant keep nerves

Same example is of SA they wanna badly but they cant - its not a desire problem but mental issue 

Same with pakistan against india in Wc

11 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

Indian players always say that kohli is never angry with us after a loss, he doesn't speak to players about their performances, doesn't tell us what to do, etc.

i never read that, infact i have kohli talking to them way to much. It was dhoni who left players alone n gave them their space

 

12 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

That's because kohli has no interest in seeing others improve.

nonsense, if u captain a side u knw u need 11 players performing so u can win

On one side u say he helped improve fitness, why did  he do so ?? Fitness can raise performance only right

13 minutes ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

He's very different from ganguly, dravid, sachin or even dhoni - who would force players around them to improve, tell them what to do, and question their decision-making.

he just has poor man mngmt like greg chappell thats it

Cant doubt that guys hunger and commitment , every player knws he cant win team a game alone its a team game

[Manny_Pacquiao]

27 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

every captain every player wants to win tournament, everyone

coz his pwn performance is superlative, a captain place mostly comes under doubt when his runs or wkts dry up or team keeps loosing. We win a lot of games useless ones though but we do.

N virat gets called out for those tournament 

no ur confusion desire with nerves, he just cant keep nerves

Same example is of SA they wanna badly but they cant - its not a desire problem but mental issue 

Same with pakistan against india in Wc

i never read that, infact i have kohli talking to them way to much. It was dhoni who left players alone n gave them their space

 

nonsense, if u captain a side u knw u need 11 players performing so u can win

On one side u say he helped improve fitness, why did  he do so ?? Fitness can raise performance only right

he just has poor man mngmt like greg chappell thats it

Cant doubt that guys hunger and commitment , every player knws he cant win team a game alone its a team game

Well, at least you agree with me on the man management thing. He's s*** at managing others.

 

And he never advised others to work on their fitness. He changed his approach to fitness because he thought it would help him score runs. He is self-obsessed. Other players simply followed him.

 

I don't think he has nerves at all. He's actually very good under pressure. Look at how he batted in the 2011 world cup final, 2013 champions trophy final, world T20 in 2014, 2016. His problem is captaincy, he's a terrible captain and panics very easily.

 

I don't think his motivation is as strong as it was before he became captain. He doesn't want to win as badly as he used to, but he's still highly motivated to score runs and maintain his reputation as a great batman.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Manny_Pacquiao

[Ankit_sharma03]

3 hours ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

And he never advised others to work on their fitness. He changed his approach to fitness because he thought it would help him score runs. He is self-obsessed. Other players simply followed him.

He chaged his approach and saw result 

But he asks everyone to follow it- there is an interview of his where he pointed out why lack of fitness in our players use to loose them intensity in last stages of game hence he asked them to improve fitness n diet specially bowlers. 

3 hours ago, Manny_Pacquiao said:

 

I don't think he has nerves at all. He's actually very good under pressure. Look at how he batted in the 2011 world cup final, 2013 champions trophy final, world T20 in 2014, 2016. His problem is captaincy, he's a terrible captain and panics very easily.

 

All under diff captain, a captain nerves affects team which is why same players have diff reaction under diff captains. Kohli as captain is diff as player coz as player u can control urself but as captain u need to worry about xi of whom u cant control much. That is why captaincy is the toughest job.