It is outright surprising! India’s batting mainstay Virat Kohli has not been chosen in the ICC Test team of the year when he should be the captain of the team. England’s Alastair Cook, whose skills as a captain are in question after the disastrous tour of India, has been chosen as the captain of the team. Here is why Virat Kohli deserves to lead the ICC Test team.
Virat Kohli as a batsman
Virat Kohli has been in a tremendous form in 2016 in Test matches. He has played 12 Test matches in the year and has scored 1215 runs in 18 innings. His batting average is a whopping 75.93. He has scored three double centuries and a century. He also hit two half-centuries. Many of these knocks were match winning and even match saving.
Great record as captain
Virat Kohli’s record as a captain is phenomenal- India under his captaincy has not lost a Test for 18 matches. He led the team to a famous win against West Indies. India defeated New Zealand 3-0 and England 4-0. India are the number one Test team in the world. All of this can be attributed to his captaincy.
Leadership qualities
Virat Kohli is an inspirational captain. He has inspired all the players in the team and has been instrumental in imbibing team spirit in them. The results are showing on the performances of players. Under him, young players like KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Jayant Yadav flourished under him and have shown great maturity on the field.
Poor form of Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook has just led the team to a 4-0 loss against India. He even performed poorly with the bat- he was dismissed 6 times by Ravindra Jadeja in the series. Despite this, he was chosen in the ICC team. Many other English players were also picked for the team but not Kohli. The Delhi lad has been in peak form with the willow, having scored 1,215 runs in 12 Tests, which includes three double hundreds. Wasn’t it enough for the jury to have picked him? Cook scored 1,270 runs in the game’s longer format in the outgoing year. Fine enough, but why not the Indian skipper?
Kohli was chosen as the captain of the ICC ODI team of the year 2016. It is surprising as the team is led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the limited overs format. Moreover, if numbers were the criteria, then Kane Williamson has managed to score only 753 runs in ten Test matches. His average of around 47 is also less than that of Kohli’s 75.93.
ICC Test team of the year 2016: Alastair Cook (captain), David Warner, Kane Williamson, Joe Root, Adam Voges, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rangana Herath, Mitchell Starc, Dale Steyn, Steve Smith.
ICC ODI team of the year 2016: Virat Kohli (captain), David Warner, Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, Jos Buttler, Mitchell Marsh, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Starc, Kagiso Rabada, Sunil Narine, Imran Tahir.
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