An open letter to Virat Kohli

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                                                                   Picture credits: www.scroll.in

Hi Virat,

I heard your name for the first time when you lead the team to win the U19 Cricket World Cup for India. You made your way into the senior Indian side and your career thus far has been amazing. You are deemed as the best batsman of modern era and often being compared to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Don Bradman. Everything is great and you love and respect from people all around the world.

I admire you as a batsman. You're breaking each and every record as if that's just a school boy stuff for you. I've seen you improve to be a fit player from your days of U19 cricket and that change and commitment is what rewards you today. As much as I admire you and follow you in your professional career, I do not like the way how Indian Cricket is handled in your leadership.

When you took reigns as the Test captain from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in December 2014, I really liked the way you went about things. The positive mindset, the motivational talks on post match presentations were a joy to watch. I was glad that you were given the captaincy. I believe it made you a better player than you already were. Also, you seemed to have cut down on the aggressive emotions you once used to display when you were not a captain. I liked the change and the attitude with which you started leading the Indian side. In 2017, when you took the limited overs captaincy too, most of your fans including me were overjoyed. However, things took a bad turn. There was a controversy about a spat between you and Anil Kumble, the then Indian head coach. Anil Kumble resigned and Ravi Shastri was the new head coach of Indian cricket team

From then on, your leadership never really excited me. There was nothing unique or something you could do better in terms of captaincy than the other captains. It seemed that you wanted things as you want them to be. You've denied of Ravi Shastri being a "YES" man to you, but the way Indian cricket was/is dealt with, from the outside, it seemed like you had/have total control. There were constant changes in the Test as well as the ODI squads. There was no stability. We lost the Test series against England 1-4 and the head coach said that this is the most successful overseas Indian team in the last 15 years when statistics proves it wrong. Every press conference gave a feeling that Indian team is overconfident and arrogant. We had 2 years to finalise a proper no.4 batsman for the World Cup. In 2018, you said that Rayudu is the no.4 for the World Cup. But, he's not found in the squad for the World Cup. There are many examples of players being treated as rag-dolls and not players. Shubman Gill was selected for the New Zealand series which gave an impression that after the World Cup, Indian Cricket is looking at new talent. However, he is not to be seen in the squad against West Indies. Mayank Aggarwal, an uncapped ODI player, was announced as replacement for the injured Vijay Shankar, however after the World Cup, he is not selected for the Windies tour. There seems to be no clear plan of things ahead. For India, one of the top teams, a semi final exit is an under achievement. The dominant and autocratic nature of your leadership in the Indian cricket team makes the fans feel that Ravi Shastri is for namesake. I hope you understand and realise that there are problems going on with the Indian Cricket Team unlike Ravi Shastri who gives a feeling that there are no problems at all in all his press conference talks. His language and his words imply that Indian team is always the best but the results show the exact opposite.

Also, since Ravi Shastri has come to coach the Indian team, there seems to be no discipline in the Indian team. I am sorry to say this but I haven't seen a coach drinking beer coming outside of a team bus when his team is losing a Test series. He's retained as team India's coach for the next 2 years inspite of a failure at the World Cup gives me an impression that Indian cricket will never improve as long as you and Ravi Shastri move together. I don't understand why you're still happy with Ravi Shastri as the head coach inspite of not achieving the goal of winning the 2019 World Cup. I am afraid if this continues till 2023, we will drop the chance to win that too.

I just want to say that try to understand other players. You are a great player but you can't expect everyone to be like you. Give them the time and space and don't expect from them as much as you expect from yourself. I haven't seen players playing under pressure of being in the Indian team because the captain is looking for instant success. Back them, support them, show them the confidence as a true leader.

This is my and a few Indian cricket lovers opinion about your leadership and not an advice. I am no one to advice you.

Regards,
An Indian cricket fan

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