At The Moment Virat Kohli Has A Pretty Firm Handle On The Dressing Room: David Gower On Split-Captaincy In Indian Cricket

Former England captain David Gower has opined about the ongoing debate around split-captaincy in Indian cricket. With Rohit Sharma scaling new heights as a T20 captain in the Indian Premier League and Virat Kohli’s inability to lead his franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore to a single IPL title,  there is a faction of Indian fans who have been calling for Rohit Sharma to take over from the current Indian skipper in white-ball cricket.

The talks regarding split-captaincy have intensified in the past three months after Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane led a severely depleted Indian team to an unprecedented and historic series win in  Australia.

Virat Kohli had left the team after India’s shambolic defeat in the first Test at the Adelaide Oval in order to be with his pregnant wife Anushka Sharma, post which Rahane picked up the pieces and orchestrated one of India’s greatest-ever triumphs.

The talks got even more intensified after India lost the first Test against England under the leadership of Virat Kohli by a whopping margin of 227 runs. Kohli, however, stormed back to win the next three Test matches to become the most successful Indian skipper on home soil.

David Gower recently gave an interview to the Times of India where he was asked about his views on the split-captaincy debate in India. Gower reckoned that while a captain knows when his time is up, he added that skipper Kohli has got a firm grip on the dressing room.

Gower alluded to Ajinkya Rahane’s statement after the Test series win in Australia where the vice-captain had said that he is more than happy to play his role as deputy to Virat Kohli and that he is ready to assume the responsibility of captaining the team in the absence of the current skipper.

 “I don’t really think I’m qualified to speak (about that) because I think you have to look into the dynamics of the dressing room. Rahane, for instance, has always said that he doesn’t want to take over from Virat. He said this in public anyway that he’s very happy to stand in if he’s needed. But he doesn’t want to take over,” David Gower told TOI.

“And if that is the feeling in the dressing room as a whole, maybe the best man to ask is someone like my old friend Ravi Shastri. With Ravi, who is keeping a senior eye on events as head coach, he will know what the feeling is. A captain knows his days are numbered but at the moment Virat has a pretty firm handle on the dressing room,” added David Gower.

Also Read: VVS Laxman Explains Why Split-Captaincy Won’t Work In India