IND vs SA: KL Rahul Is Probably Not Ready For India's Captaincy Role, Says Salman Butt

Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt feels that the Indian cricket team’s structure has been dented after Virat Kohli was axed as ODI captain.

In the span of four months, Kohli has relieved himself from leading the Indian team from all formats. First, he stepped down from T20I captaincy at the conclusion of the World T20 event in November last year.

Ahead of the South Africa tour, the national selectors decided to hand over the complete white-ball captaincy duties to Rohit Sharma.

A day after India lost the Test series to South Africa 1-2, Kohli took to his official Twitter handle to announce his decision to quit the red-ball captaincy.

India earlier had a very good captain: Salman Butt

Butt said that if Kohli can be removed from captaincy than anything is possible to happen to the other players, which won’t be an ideal environment for the team to progress.

“India earlier had a very good captain, who is an outstanding and world-class performer. But now, the other players in the team are thinking – if he cannot do it, then what can we do? If a player like Kohli has been sacked as captain, then one can only imagine what can happen to the others. This is not a good message being sent across. The structure of the team has been dented,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

KL Rahul doesn’t seem to be mentally  prepared for captaincy role: Salman Butt

India has lost all the three matches under Rahul’s captaincy so far including the first two ODI matches. Butt feels that Rahul is not prepared for the captaincy role and there are chances that the leadership responsibility might affect his performance.

“KL Rahul is looking meek. India’s display was also meek under him. He’s probably not ready for the position that has come to him. Mentally, he doesn’t seem to be ready. He was getting better as a cricketer. It’s hard on the guy as well,” Butt opined.

“Rahul’s a wonderful player. But if you give him such a huge responsibility before he is prepared and that too with a legend already present in the team, it is not easy to absorb,” he added.

South Africa and India will move from Paarl to Cape Town to play the final ODI match of the series at the Newlands on Sunday (January 23). India will hope to avoid the white-wash by ending their tour with a victory.

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