Virat Kohli’s captaincy affected international careers of THESE top cricketers

When Virat Kohli became the captain in all three formats, careers of some top Indian cricketers were affected which included Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and even Ravichandran Ashwin.

Indian captain Virat Kohli. (Source: Twitter)

Team India captain Virat Kohli has announced his decision to quit the T20 captaincy at the end of T20 World Cup 2021 later this month. Rohit Sharma is expected to take over the reigns from Kohli in the T20 format and possibly even in ODI cricket if the Board of Control for Cricket in India feel so.

The question now on most cricket fans’ mind is whether Kohli’s career in the T20 and ODI format will be affected once Rohit becomes captain. When Kohli became the captain in all three formats, careers of some top Indian cricketers were affected which included Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and even Ravichandran Ashwin.

Here we take a look at top cricketers who were affected by Kohli’s leadership…

Yuvraj Singh

The Punjab southpaw was an integral part of the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 50-over World Cup winning teams, ending up as the ‘Player-of-the-tournament’ in the latter. Yuvraj’s career prospered under the leadership of MS Dhoni, who made him a match-winner in limited-overs cricket. Overall, Yuvraj turned out in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20s in his international career.

But Yuvraj failed to keep up that form under the leadership of Kohli and finally retired from international cricket back in 2019.

Suresh Raina

He was yet another left-hander who prospered under Dhoni. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, Raina turned out in 228 ODI matches and scored over 6,200 runs at an average better than 35.

However, Raina’s form trailed off once Kohli became the captain of the side. The Uttar Pradesh and Chennai Super Kings batsman just managed 26 ODIs under Kohli and scored 542 runs in the process before announcing his international retirement with Dhoni in 2020.

Ravichandran Ashwin

The Tamil Nadu and Delhi Capitals off-spinner’s ODI and T20 career has also come to a screeching halt under the captaincy of Kohli. Under Dhoni, Ashwin had claimed 105 ODI scalps in 78 games and 42 T20 wickets in 49 matches.

But under Kohli, Ashwin has only played in 20 ODIs and picked up 25 wickets.