Captaincy was never a burden on Virat Kohli, says Sunil Gavaskar

All the headlines building up to the first Test between India and Sri Lanka in Mohali concern only one man: Virat Kohli. The former Indian captain will play the 100^th Test match of his international career. Kohli is set to become only the 13^th Indian cricketer to cross the massive milestone and Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar expects him to shine during the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

During a discussion on Star Sports, the former batting great was enquired whether captaincy took a toll on Virat Kohli. Gavaskar believes that the 33-year-old showed no signs of pressure during his tenure as Indian captain as he continued to chalk up runs almost at will and scored centuries for fun.

“Kohli, when he was captain, he showed that there were no effects of the burden of captaincy. He was reeling off hundreds just every other innings. So don’t think captaincy was ever a burden on him,” said Gavaskar.

With that being said, however, Gavaskar shared a few points that Kohli needs to work on. “As a captain what happens is that you are concerned about everybody else. It’s just a natural thing, you are concerned about your bowlers’ forms, maybe there is a slight niggle injury, as a batting unit maybe your No.4 or No.5 are not getting the runs, getting out badly.

“So you might be scoring runs yourselves as a captain but you are always concerned about everybody else in the team. That is where you can’t focus on your batting. As not a captain, you can focus entirely on your batting. That is the biggest advantage that you can have.”

The cricketer-turned-commentator also expects Kohli to play with more freedom now that the captaincy burden is no longer on his shoulders. Following the tour of South Africa, the batter dropped a bombshell by relinquishing the captaincy of the team in the longest format. Much like the white-ball formats, Rohit Sharma was announced as his successor even in Test cricket.

“But now I think it’s a question of him getting used to the fact that he is not calling the shots. As long as he is delivering the shots with the bat, nothing else is mattering,” concluded Gavaskar.