Ian Chappell lauds Virat Kohli's captaincy, credits him for India's overseas success

Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has lauded Virat Kohli for making a tremendous impact as a captain after taking over the legacy of his predecessors Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni. Chappell mentioned that when Kohli had taken over the reins from Dhoni a few years ago, and with a capable Test deputy in Ajinkya Rahane, he lifted India to overseas success as no other captain had done.

Under Virat Kohli’s reign, Team India were at the pinnacle of the ICC Test rankings for 42 months (October 2016 to March 2020) and have never been defeated in a home Test series. He had led the Indian team to their first-ever  Test series triumph in Australia during the 2020/21 season and the Men In Blue are currently leading in the five-match series in England 2-1 with the final Test scheduled to be played in July this year.

“His two personal major overseas successes were Australia in 2018-19 and England in 2021. At home, his side was virtually unbeatable, with only a loss apiece to Australia and England in 31 Tests. Kohli took the legacy of Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni and substantially built on it in seven years at the helm. His biggest disappointment as captain was the recent series loss to South Africa after India led the away series 1-0, though he didn’t captain in the middle Test of that series, in Cape Town,” Ian Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNcricinfo.

Ian Chappell credits Virat Kohli for developing Rishabh Pant as a wicketkeeper batter

At the same time, the cricketer-turned-cricket pundit also gave a special mention to the batting megastar for playing a key role in developing the career of the promising wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant who is now a regular member for India across formats.

“One of Kohli’s great achievements was instilling in his team craving for Test cricket. Despite his all-encompassing success, Kohli’s major aim was to achieve victory in the Test arena and this is where his passion really shone. There is no doubt that Kohli drove his men hard but it’s also apparent they enjoyed competing and wanted success. Kohli has a number of individual achievements in his resume, none bigger than the development of Rishabh Pant as a wicketkeeper and batter,” he said.

As far as his captaincy in red-ball cricket is concerned, Virat Kohli has led India in 68 matches winning 40 of them which is a far better record than Ganguly (21 wins from 49 games), and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (27 wins from 60 games) respectively.