‘Captains should be allowed such autonomy?’: Nick Compton’s staunch criticism for Virat Kohli over Ashwin

Former England cricketer Nick Compton has again targeted Indian skipper Virat Kohli for not including spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the Playing XI. This time, Compton took a dig at Kohli after his side’s eight-wicket loss to New Zealand in the T20 World Cup, which is underway in UAE and Oman. 

India were tournament favourites but their semi-final hopes have suffered a jolt after their second successive defeat in the Super 12 stage. They already have faced a humiliating 10-wicket defeat against their arch-rivals Pakistan. 

Previously, Compton pointed out Ashwin’s non-inclusion in the Playing XI in the fourth Test of India’s recent tour to England for a five-match series. Compton had said that Ashwin was not selected due to personal issues with Kohli. “Please can someone explain how Kohli obvious personal issues with Ashwin are allowed to cloud an obvious selection issue?” wrote Compton. 

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Now, taking to his official Twitter, he has raised the same issue again as he questioned that should captains should be allowed such autonomy as he mentioned “Kohli’s prickly relationship with Ashwin”. 

“I just don’t understand how Kohli’s prickly relationship with Ashwin is allowed to keep him out of Indian teams? Do you think Captains should be allowed such autonomy?” wrote Compton on his Twitter handle during India vs New Zealand T20 World Cup contest. 

India were put in to bat after Kohli lost the toss, he made two changes as Ishan Kishan replaced Suryakumar Yadav and Shardul Thakur came in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, cricket pundits were speculating the inclusion of another spin-bowling option. 

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During the post-match presentation, Kohli said, “We obviously didn’t have much to play with the ball. We were just not brave enough in our body language when we entered the field and NZ had better intensity, body language. Every time we took a chance, we lost a wicket. It’s most often a result of hesitation of whether you should go for a shot or not.” 

Put in to bat, India’s rejigged top-order and were off to a poor start as they crawled to 110-7 in 20 overs in the Super 12 match. Trent Boult took 3-20 and Ish Sodhi returned 2-17 in New Zealand’s disciplined bowling display. 

Daryl Mitchell made a fluent 49 and skipper Kane Williamson remained not out on 33 as New Zealand triumphed with 33 balls to spare to bounce back from the defeat by Pakistan in their tournament opener.