Virat Kohli will have to step down as captain if India don’t win the ODI or T20 World Cup: Monty Panesar

Monty Panesar, the former England cricketer, reckons that it’s high time for Virat Kohli to guide Team India to victory in the ODI and T20 World Cup. As per the retired tweaker, if the 32-year-old Virat isn’t able to give India a world title, then he should step down as the skipper of the national team. Kohli has been acting as India’s limited-overs’ skipper since January 2017.

He has won a number of bilateral series for Team India but doesn’t have a world title to his name. In 2017, India lost the Champions Trophy final to Pakistan and two years later, India bowed out of the 2019 World Cup after a defeat to New Zealand in Manchester.

“If India have a questionable series. If they don’t win the T20 World Cup, or the World Cup, because they’re both in India. I think after that Virat Kohli will have to step down. His captaincy is there but he definitely needs to win one out of the T20 or the World Cup in India,” Panesar told Sportskeeda.

Virat Kohli will have to start listening to other people: Monty Panesar

After Virat’s departure in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy following India’s defeat in Adelaide, Ajinkya Rahane took charge of the unit. Rahane led India to wins in Melbourne and Brisbane, leading India to a 2-1 series win.

Panesar feels that it will be interesting to see how Virat makes his approach during India’s upcoming home series against England, starting February 5 in Chennai. Panesar reckons that Kohli will have to shelve his ‘dictator’ style of leadership and listen to other teammates.

“It’s an interesting debate. I think Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma’s combination works really well when they’re both given the leadership. It will be the skill of Virat Kohli to manage all the leaders now. This is going to be the next part of his captaincy,” he stated.

“He likes his dictatorship style but this time he’ll have to start listening to other people. There may be times during the Test series when he may have to listen to the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravi Shastri, and Rohit Sharma,” Panesar added.