India vs England 2021: Virat Kohli Doesn’t Need The Distraction From This Captaincy Debate, Says Kevin Pietersen

Indian captain Virat Kohli has been under some pressure in the recent past, especially when it comes to captaincy, given that India has lost four straight Test matches under his captaincy with two losses coming in New Zealand, one against Australia in Adelaide and the recent most coming against England in Chennai.

Many cricket experts had said that Ajinkya Rahane should be made the permanent India Test captain, especially after he led the team to a brilliant 2-1 Test series win in Australia, in Kohli’s absence. And former England captain Kevin Pietersen feels that this pressure and debate about his captaincy is a big distraction for India’s best batsman Virat Kohli and something that he can do without.

Virat Kohli Needs To Lead India To A Victory In Second Test To Quieten Things Down, Says Kevin Pietersen

“I absolutely don’t expect things to change, but it is impossible to avoid the continuing debate around the Indian Test match captaincy. Virat Kohli has now lost four consecutive Test matches as skipper and has Ajinkya Rahane, who just led India to a famous series win in Australia, in his side,” Pietersen wrote in his blog for Betway.

Virat Kohli had returned home after the Adelaide Test defeat in which India was bowled out for 36- their lowest innings score in Tests. Kohli received a lot of unnecessary flak for coming back after that embarrassing defeat in Adelaide despite getting permission from BCCI for coming back for the birth of his first child.

With Ajinkya Rahane leading the team brilliantly, especially with them facing so many hurdles in form of injuries to key players in the course of the Test series, arguments have begun that it’s time for Kohli to step down from Test captaincy and let Rahane take over for betterment of the team.

However, Kohli still remains India’s most successful Test captain with 33 wins, 14 loses and 10 draws in 57 Test matches. Therefore Pietersen opined that Virat Kohli needs to win the upcoming second Test against England to shut the detractors down for a bit and quieten things down.

“On social media, every radio station, every television channel, and every news channel, there are very deep discussions around what should happen. Captaining your country is very difficult and unfortunately, this is the nature of the beast. It’s one more distraction that Kohli doesn’t need but he is, of course, capable of leading his side to a victory in the second Test to quieten things down a bit,” said Pietersen.

The second Test match begins from February 13 onwards in Chennai.

Also Read: India vs England 2021: Jofra Archer Ruled Out Of The Second Test Due To An Elbow Injury