Virat Kohli Will Have To Step Down If India Fails To Win T20 Or 50-Over World Cup: Monty Panesar

Former England spinner Monty Panesar feels that Indian skipper Virat Kohli will have to relinquish the leadership reigns if he failed to lead India to title glory in the upcoming T20 and 50-over World Cups.

Virat Kohli’s leadership in white-ball cricket has been under scrutiny for some time now given Team India’s inability to breach the knockout barrier in ICC events.

Under Virat, India went on to lose to Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy final before going down to the Kiwis in the semi-final of the World Cup, two years later.

With two of the next three ICC events set to take place on home soil- T20 World Cup in 2021 and 50-over World Cup in 2023- Monty Panesar, during an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda, reckoned that pressure will be on Virat to lead India to their ICC title since 2013 in one of those events.

“If India have a questionable series. If they don’t win the T20 World Cup, or the World Cup, because they’re both in India. I think after that Virat Kohli will have to step down. His captaincy is there but he definitely needs to win one out of the T20 or the World Cup in India,” Panesar said.

‘He likes his dictatorship style but this time he’ll have to start listening to other people’- Monty Panesar on Virat Kohli

Following Ajinkya Rahane’s inspired leadership that paved way for one of India’s greatest-ever triumphs in Test cricket, an interesting debate has been stirred up in the country as to whether Virat Kohli should make way for his deputy in Test cricket.

Monty Panesar feels that Kohli should continue to lead Team India. He, however, reckoned that the Indian skipper will need to alter his leadership style what he termed as ‘dictatorial’

“It’s an interesting debate. I think Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma’s combination works really well when they’re both given the leadership. It will be the skill of Virat Kohli to manage all the leaders now. This is going to be the next part of his captaincy,” Panesar added.

“Especially when England come to India and play 4 Tests in Tests in 5 weeks. He likes his dictatorship style but this time he’ll have to start listening to other people. There may be times during the Test series when he may have to listen to the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravi Shastri and Rohit Sharma. He’ll have to take their decisions on board and put them into practice,” Monty Panesar said.

Also Read: Removing Virat Kohli From Captaincy Would Destroy The Culture Of The Indian Team: Brad Hogg