Virat Kohli might not be the designated captain of India in white-ball cricket yet, but he is still a leader within the group and that was on display earlier in the first ODI between India and West Indies in Ahmedabad when the young Indian spinner Washington Sundar came into the attack.
Rohit Sharma, India’s new white-ball captain, had set a different sort of field for the left hander against an off spinner, but when the right-hander Brandon King got onto the strike, the former captain Kohli seemed to be suggesting something to Rohit in terms of field placement and on the very next ball, India got a wicket.
It was the kind of pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium where the ball was holding into the surface and it was not easy for the West Indies batsmen to handle the Indian spinners. Brandon King was trying to hang onto the backfoot and play Sundar off the pitch, but because of the hold into the surface, he couldn’t really control the punch through the leg side and Suryakumar Yadav completed a decent catch at the short midwicket position.
Kohli, thereafter, seemed to be involved in the planning of the dismissal of West Indies captain Kieron Pollard as well. The leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bowled a googly to Pollard first up and trying to go for a big booming drive, Pollard just completely missed the ball and was cleaned up. The way Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli celebrated after that wicket, it definitely seemed as it was a plan by the Indian team which came off.
Kohli adjusted the field and next ball Washi took the Wicket! pic.twitter.com/loOEydCnga
— SCOOP (@Scoopknowsball) February 6, 2022
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There have been rumours of a rift between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
There have been a lot of speculations and rumours related to the relationship of Virat and Rohit in recent times, and there have been question marks if the transition of captaincy between Virat and Rohit will turn out as smoothly as the transition between Dhoni and Virat turned out.
If today’s game is anything to by, it clearly seems that Virat Kohli is going to be involved in team’s planning going ahead even though he is not the captain, pretty much the same way MS Dhoni was involved in team’s planning from 2017 to 2019 when he played for India in white ball cricket just as a player and not as a captain.
India Vs West Indies ODI series is India’s first assignment under the full time tenure of Rohit Sharma’s white-ball captaincy.
