T20 World Cup will be very crucial for Virat Kohli’s captaincy career: Saba Karim

Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Saba Karim reckons the upcoming T20 World Cup will be crucial for Virat Kohli’s captaincy career. Kohli is yet to win a major ICC title under his captaincy tenure and his captaincy has often come under the scanner.

The Indian Test team has taken giant strides under the leadership of Virat Kohli but a big title has eluded the side. Team India last won a major ICC title back in 2013 when MS Dhoni led the team to glory in the Champions Trophy against England.

Meanwhile, India lost the final of Champions Trophy 2017 under the captaincy of Virat Kohli whereas they couldn’t go all the way in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand. Furthermore, they lost in the semifinal of 2019 World Cup against the Kiwis.

India has always been a consistent team throughout the major events but they have struggled to cross the final hurdle as they have failed to grab the crucial stages of the match.

Saba Karim said while talking to India News, “The T20 World Cup will be very crucial for Virat Kohli’s captaincy career. I feel the pressure is increasing on him. He himself knows that he has not won an ICC trophy as a skipper. He will put in utmost effort to ensure that India wins this World Cup.”

“I have the expectation that India will win this trophy on 14th November. Then I feel that Virat Kohli will get breathing space. Then he can assess for how long he wants to captain after that, he can evaluate if there is too much pressure on him.”

There is no doubt that pressure is mounting on the shoulders of Virat Kohli as he is yet to deliver a big trophy as a leader. On the other hand, former Indian all-rounder Reetinder Singh Sodhi also feels the pressure is increasing on Kohli to deliver the goods as a captain.

Sodhi said, “If you talk about pressure, it is definitely there because you have not won an ICC tournament, which is very much required. You have been the captain for such a long time but in crunch moments our team has come under pressure and lost. So Virat Kohli will definitely want to improve there.”