Things have not gone well with former India captain Virat Kohli in the last four months. In September 2021, Kohli announced to relinquish the T20 captaincy of team India. Since then a tussle seems to have taken place between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Kohli. Their responses even started to come out separately. The famous press conference of Kohli before the South Africa tour made the matter more controversial. Later, just a day after India’s 2-1 Test series defeat against South Africa, Kohli surprised everyone by leaving the Test captaincy of the Indian team as well.
And since then many questions were raised regarding the matter and several former cricketers and experts gave their opinions on this also.
Akhtar's take
Meanwhile, former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, in an interview with Sports Tak, opened up on the captaincy saga that has occupied the central point of multiple debates in India. While talking about the issue, Akhtar said that Kohli’s “next 50 centuries will be because of the anger” that the former Indian skipper currently has.
“If he can give good performances in the next five-six months, he will be happy to have quit captaincy and would tell himself that he can score 120 international hundreds,” AKhtar told Sports Tak during the Howzat Legends League Cricket tournament that is being played in Oman.
“His next 50 centuries will be because of the anger that he has now. And, this anger does not have be reflected on people but in his batting,” added the former Pakistan fast bowler.
While talking about India’s new skipper Rohit Sharma, Akhtar said that only “time will tell” about his captaincy.
“Rohit Sharma is a great player and there’s no doubt in it. As a captain, how he does, time will tell but I think he has a huge responsibility on his shoulder,” said the 46-year-old former fast bowler.
Bumrah as vice-captain
Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah was appointed as the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team that is currently playing the ODI series in South Africa. While talking about this decision, Akhtar totally supported it and said that “Bumrah should be groomed under Rohit Sharma as his vice captain.”
“Bumrah should be groomed under Rohit Sharma as his vice captain. He should be groomed, he should be told also because the amount of cricket that is being played today it’s not easy in cricketers. But still, this trend is very wrong that only a batsman can become the captain.”
