NO Ash No Win
Everyone is puzzled Why Virat Kohli is avoiding R Ashwin in any format.
In a must win game against New Zealand on 31st Oct 2021 he chose to not to pick Ashwin.
There is something gone wrong between Ashwin & Kohli before the England Tour where he benched Ashwin in all the four tests played there. That too when Ashwin of recently playing only Test format for BCCI's team. R Ashwin even played one off game for Surrey and picked 6 wickets in an innings on the English Soil. Even on the World Test Chamionship final , Only Ashwin was threatening NZ batsmen and only one to pick the wickets.
Most bizzare happened before the 4th test started in England, when Kohli explained he prefers Jadeja over Ashwin as there are more left handers in English side. The statistics says the quite opposite story where Ashwin is the highest wicket taker of Left Handers. Even the most dangerous English Player Ben stokes had become a sitting bunny for Ashwin.
In the ongoing ICC T20 world cup too. In the two matches played till now, neither bowlers nor batsmen could make any impact on the opposition. Pakistan rubbed hard on the wound with a NO Loss victory. Kohli has now a unique record of being the only captain to get defeated by a Pakistan Side in a ICC tournament.
All these are happening because of high ego quotient of Kohli. Even after his ignominious exit after 36 all out at Adelaide against Australia, more silent task master Ajinkya Rahane could win the whole series with the same set of men & that too even with Net bowlers at Gabba, Brisbane.
It is mainly due to the Chest Thumping attitude of Virat Kohli and not listening to the fellow mates instead even focusing fighting with Spectators on the Ground. Calm & Cool captains like Kane Williamson, Eoin Morgan, Rohit Sharma & Ajinkya Rahane are able to inspire more and are allowing the team members to raise up to the occasion. Kohli's "I am the boss" attitude is not bringing the best of out of Indian Cricketing Men. Lets not allow the great Batsman in Kohli to die in this process. Virat !! Quit Captaincy and focus on Batting like Sachin Tendulkar.
Everyone is able to gauge from Kohli's reactions that he is not happy with BCCI management in appointing Rahul Dravid as the Next Head Coach. Rohit, Rahane or KL Rahul or even Pant will gel with the Task Master Dravid and bring out their best in the best interests of the team.
Kohli must know Kumble's 619 wickets is more valuable than Sachin's 25,000 runs or Kohli's 50,000 runs. Batsmen scoring runs on a batsmen friendly wickets and rules in either on IPL or ICC tournaments, bowlers are more valuable than a batsman. So Ashwin quick to take 400 + test wickets needs to get more opportunities and bring more glory to the cricket mad country like India.
Well written article dear friend Krishnakumar Ji. Your passion towards trees, society, following sports closely makes you an all rounder. Iam also of your view that Kohli ego killing the sports man ship of his teammates and fans. I would also like to add IPL long format in the short version of the game also perhaps impacted our T20 poor performance
ReplyDeleteThank you Venkat ji for your kind words. Sports means a lot to fanatic Indians. Game gives a lot of breathing space for the mind. So it should be played fairly is the intention. Already during Azharudddin era Indian cricket plunged in to deep scandal crisis, so for the welfare of Indians, Sports should be played just as sports without any politics involved.
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