Five Players Whose Career Faltered Under Virat Kohli's Captaincy

Team India has taken giant strides in recent years across formats of the game and is recognised as one of the most active teams in world cricket right now. However, with the change of batons from Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Virat Kohli, many players have lost their place in the national side. Furthermore, there are few players whose career faltered under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.

Meanwhile, with Kohli taking over the reigns, he focussed on the young brigade. Moreover, he gave utmost importance to the fitness levels of the cricketers.

Under his leadership, Board of Control for Cricket in India made the much-debated Yo-Yo test compulsory to break into the national team.

As a result of this, many cricketers fell out of bound, and their international career looks in jeopardy.

Here are five players whose career faltered under Virat Kohli’s captaincy:

RAVINDRA JADEJA:

Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja made their presence felt from the same tournament in the Under-19 ICC World Cup at Australia. While Kohli made his debut right after that, Jadeja had to wait for his opportunity.

However, since he stepped to the highest level, he cemented his spot immediately. He was a regular in the India team in all formats of the game.

However, since Virat Kohli took over the reigns of the team, he focused on the young cricketers, thus leaving Jadeja’s career in halt.

Meanwhile, his is a regular in the Test format in the subcontinent, but with the emergence of Kuldeep Yadav, Jadeja will now have to fight for his place in the longest format of the game as well.

So far, he has played 36 Test, 136 One-day Internationals, and 40 Twenty20 International for India. He bagged 171, 155, and 31 wickets respectively. Jadeja has also time and again proved his ability with the bat.

AMIT MISHRA:

Amit Mishra posed severe talent, but his career never flourished in the presence of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. A good leg-spinner, Mishra was seen as Anil Kumble’s predecessor.

Although he got few opportunities under the leadership of MS Dhoni with Kohli taking over the scheme of things, the chances are hard to come by for the Delhi cricketer.

Mishra has played 22 Tests for India along with 36 ODI and 10 T20Is. With age not on his side, it is unlikely that Amit Mishra will make a comeback in the Indian team.

YUVRAJ SINGH:

Yuvraj Singh is undoubtedly the most illustrated all-rounder in the history of Indian cricket. He played significant roles in India’s two World Cup winnings campaigns in 2007 and 2011 under Dhoni.

However, after being diagnosed with cancer, Yuvraj lost his place in the first XI. But with sheer passion and love for the game, he made it back to the national side, but his fitness saw a dip.

Moreover, Yuvraj failed to cash in on the opportunities he got as he was somewhat inconsistent with the bat.

Meanwhile, now with Kohli as the skipper, who is so particular about fitness, there are dark cloud’s over Yuvraj’s career. Notably, he failed to clear the much-debated Yo-Yo test for quite a few times.

HARBHAJAN SINGH:

The veteran off-spinner had a glorious career for India since making his debut in 1998. However, with Ashwin establishing his authority in the India team, Harbhajan Singh suddenly lost the track.

But know to be a fighter, he continued to come back to the side playing his last international game in 2016 Asia Cup. But with the emergence of Kohli as the captain of this side, Harbhajan suddenly felt out of bound.

Kohli has backed young talents, and with Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal doing exceptionally well, it is not likely that Harbhajan will get another chance to represent India again.

However, the cricketer from Punjab has been a regular feature in the domestic cricket and was a part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who won the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

GAUTAM GAMBHIR:

The opener from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir is one of the prominent India openers of this century. Possessing the talent to pace his innings according to the situation, Gambhir had a rare quality.

Moreover, how can someone forget his contribution in the ICC World Cup final against Sri Lanka in 2011? His patient knock took India to the doors of victory before Dhoni finished things off in style.

Gambhir had a significant fallout with Kohli, his statemate, as he fell out of bound from the Indian Cricket team. And, now with Shikhar Dhawan sealing the opening slot, there are fewer chances of Gambhir coming back in the scheme of things.

The southpaw represented India in all the formats playing 58 Tests, 147 ODIs, and 38 T20I games.