Virat Kohli: Why was India's most successful ODI skipper removed?

India's most successful ODI captain Virat Kohli was relieved of captaincy duties by the BCCI on Wednesday. There have been some conflicting reports that Kohli was given 48 hours to step down and the board decided to crack the whip after no response from the Delhi cricketer.

Also read: Rohit Sharma replaces Virat Kohli as India's ODI skipper

All the conflicting reports aside, there is no doubt about the numbers Virat Kohli raked up as the ODI skipper. His win percentage is 70% which is far better than MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly, who are regarded as great captains of India.

Kohli led India in 19 series, winning 15 and losing only 4 while at home he lost only one series out of nine as an ODI captain.

Under Kohli's captaincy, India won 24 out of 35 matches at home while outside India, he lost only 11 out of 42 games.

But Kohli's captaincy has been under scanner when it came to the ICC events. Kohli failed to win a single ICC title for his country. Under his leadership, India lost the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal, and was knocked out of the 2021 T20 World Cup in group stages. He is the only captain in Indian history to lose a match against Pakistan in the World Cups.

Kohli had already relinquished his T20 for Team India as well as the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. Many cricket pundits believe that the move to remove the burden of captaincy will let Virat blossom yet again as the prolific & dominating batter he once used to be.