Ex-India coach Sanjay Bangar says Virat Kohli should’ve continued as Test captain

Nw Desk 8 months ago 0 16

Sanjay Bangar boldly claims that King Kohli should have continued as a Test captain for longer.

Recently, former India coach Sanjay Bangar gave his opinion on Virat Kohli’s test career as a captain. He claimed that Kohli should have continued as a Test captain longer. Virat Kohli finished his Test captaincy tenure as one of the most successful captains in red-ball history. He led India to win 40 Test wins, which is fourth in the list of most successful Test captains after Graeme Smith (53), Ricky Ponting (48), and Steve Waugh (41).

Virat Kohli’s streak of success as a Test captain.

He led India to win a massive 40 test matches. He thrived with the added responsibility of captaincy in Test cricket on the 2014/15 tour of Australia. As a test captain, he scored 5,864 runs at an average of 54.80 and surpassed MS Dhoni (27 wins) in 2019, becoming India’s most successful Test captain. However, he stepped down as a Test captain after the 2022 Test series against South Africa, which shocked many, including Bangar, who believed he could’ve continued leading the side.

What did Sanjay Bangar say about Kohli’s Test captaincy?

Speaking on the Rao podcast, Sanjay Bangar said, “I personally feel that he should have continued for longer as a Test captain because he probably captained India in 65 Test matches, and one of the things I feel is that he could have probably continued as a Test captain for a longer period.”

Bangar said, “Virat was driven with the fact that India had to improve their performances overseas. Because in India we knew that whether anybody is there or not, with all due respect to the opposition, if you come to India, India is winning 75 per cent of the time. You’ll really have to play poorly to lose in India.”

He concluded, “He himself achieved enormous levels of fitness and challenged his physical limits to the hilt. He worked the hardest. I think he scored the maximum runs during that period as a captain, and he had that drive.”