‘Being a captain is one thing, being a leader is another’ – Irfan Pathan lauds Virat Kohli for backing India’s young guns

Back in January 2016, Virat Kohli became the skipper of the Indian team across all the three formats. Though he has tended to flounder at stages, he has shown great calmness in helping the team arrest its slump. He has guided the national team and has garnered praises from every nook and corner of the world. The only blob in his career is that he doesn’t have an ICC Trophy in his name.

Under his leadership, India have won all their matches in the World Test Championship with 360 points. The 31-year-old Virat is also ICC’s number-one Test batsman over the likes of Steve Smith. Recently, he led the Men in Blue to a 2-0 victory in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The first game of the series at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati was abandoned due to wet patches on the pitch.

Kohli and Co dominate

In the second T20I at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, Virat played a cameo of an unbeaten 30. The knock helped India chase down 143 in 17.3 overs. In the third and final T20I at the MCA Stadium in Pune, the Delhi-born decided to spring a surprise. He came to bat at number six in the lineup, promoting the likes of Sanju Samson, Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer as well.

In the end, he ended with 26 off 17 and took his team over the 200-run-mark. India went on to win the match by 78 runs, bowling the Lankans out for a paltry 123. With the triumph, the hosts also made a stupendous start to the year 2020.

In the meantime, Irfan Pathan, the former Indian all-rounder, lauded Kohli for giving the young guns a fair chance to show their skills. Putting forth Kohli’s name, Irfan, who announced his retirement a week ago, highlighted the different between a captain and a leader.

Irfan took to Instagram and wrote, “Being a captain is one thing,being a leader is another & @virat.kohli is proper I mean proper leader who gives away his own position to promote youngsters and build a team #Kudos #leadership photograph: @frame_sake.”

Here is Irfan Pathan’s post

View this post on Instagram

Being a captain is one thing,being a leader is another & @virat.kohli is proper I mean proper leader who gives away his own position to promote youngsters and build a team #Kudos #leadership photograph: @frame_sake

A post shared by Irfan Pathan (@irfanpathan_official) on Jan 10, 2020 at 11:09pm PST