Virat Kohli took over Test captaincy in 2014 and white-ball captaincy for India in 2017. Kohli has been the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2013. In all these years, Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to win a single major tournament for India or for RCB. RCB reached the Final in IPL 2016 but couldn’t win the tournament under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.
In the last three ICC tournaments which Virat Kohli has captained, India has looked the best side in the tournament but they haven’t been able to cross the final hurdle. India lost the Final of the Champions Trophy in 2017, they lost the semi-final in the 2019 World Cup, and most recently lost the Final of the World Test Championship. So let us have a look at five reasons why Virat Kohli could not win major tournaments.
5. Over dependency on a few players
Virat Kohli’s team, on most occasions, has been over-dependent on only a few players. While that might be changing for the Indian team to a certain extent, but it is completely true for his IPL team. It is a known fact that RCB is over-dependent on Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers in the batting department.
Even in the bowling department, Yuzvendra Chahal was the only performer till last season. In fact, even the Indian ODI team was overdependent on the top three batsmen. This over dependency is one of the reasons for not winning a major tournament under the leadership of Virat Kohli.
4. Star players failing at crucial stages
If your team is dependent on only a few players and if they fail at the crucial stages then your team is going to fail. This has been the case for the Indian team and the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.
Star players like Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Virat Kohli himself have failed at crucial stages in a major tournament. Even the likes of AB De Villiers and Chris Gayle have failed to deliver at the crunch moment in the IPL. If your star players keep failing then it would be difficult to win a major tournament.
3. Picking an unbalanced team
Virat Kohli has been guilty of picking the wrong players, especially in the crunch moments of a major tournament. The most recent example being the World Test Championship Final. With all the rain around, India clearly needed a seam-bowling all-rounder but with no one available India went in with 2 spinners which backfired to a huge extent.
India also needed proper swing bowlers, but they went in with bowlers who seam the ball as compared to swing. This has happened quite often in major tournaments and that’s why Virat Kohli has failed to win.
2. The pressure of Big Games
India has lost thrice in the knockout games in a major tournament under the captaincy of Virat Kohli. Not only that but even RCB has lost two Finals and a couple of playoff games under his captaincy. Clearly, there seems to be the pressure of the big games.
These games are slightly different from the normal ones where you can still make a comeback after a loss. But in these games, if you lose you are out of the tournament and maybe the team isn’t able to cope up with this pressure. This pressure is costing Virat Kohli’s team in these big games.
1. Batting Collapses in Crucial Games
One of the reasons why India is losing these crucial or knockout games is the batting collapses. In the Final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, India had a huge batting collapse while chasing 339. Even in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, India was 5-3 and Virat Kohli mentioned that 45 mins of bad cricket cost them the game.
Similarly, in the WTC Final, the first hour on Day 6 cost India the game. These batting collapses are happening quite often and this is one of the main reasons why Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to win a single major tournament.
