Virat Kohli's Captaincy News In Media Is A Dirty Game, Asserts Salman Butt

Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt feels that Indian captain Virat Kohli is being targeted with some dirty games ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.

Kohli has been the captain of India across all formats for the last four years and Indian cricket has reached its new heights under his stupendous leadership. For the first time, they defeated Australia in the Test series in their own backyard in 2018/19 and this year they were inches away from repeating the same thing in England if the COVID-19 scare wouldn’t have interrupted.

Now there’s talk of Virat Kohli’s captaincy being on the danger line: Salman Butt

There were some reports that suggested that if Kohli is unable to win India the T20 World Cup then he could lose his captaincy as a consequence. Butt condemned such kind of news in the mainstream media and reminded everyone about Kohli’s stint with the Indian team.

“Do you see the timing of this news? I don’t have a problem with what the board thinks, it’s about their own evaluation of who can take their cricket forward… but is this the time to discuss these things? Now there’s talk of Virat Kohli’s captaincy being on the danger line,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

“He’s (Virat) recently played a series in England, led his team really well, he was being criticised for his team selections but he’s constantly backing his team and in turn, the team is responding to him and playing good cricket… the team is at the top in every format and the World Cup is right up front, so such news surfacing in the media is nothing but a dirty game,” he added.

Rohit Sharma is a very good captain but this is not the time to talk about these things: Salman Butt

Many experts have raised the voice that India should adopt split captaincy just like Australia and England to reduce the workload on Kohli and many have also been impressed with Rohit Sharma’s, who is currently the deputy of Kohli in India’s limited-overs plan, achievements of winning Mumbai Indians five IPL titles.

Butt also acknowledged that Rohit is a good leader but the Pakistan player feels that it is not the correct time to stress on the issue and it will have a bad impact on Kohli and the team.

“I have said this before, Rohit Sharma is a very good captain, very successful, but this is not the time to talk about these things… Trophies matter, I agree but see the percentage of the games he has won and how successful he has been around the world. I think this is not the time and the guy has done a lot of good to Indian cricket. This news resurfacing is nothing but bad intent which shouldn’t happen.”

India, under Kohli’s captaincy, will start their T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 at Dubai International Stadium.

Also Read: Virat Kohli Captaincy Similar To Sourav Ganguly, Reckons Irfan Pathan