Virat Kohli says he was considered ‘failed’ as captain after 4 tournaments

“I never judged myself from that point of view; what we ended up achieving as a team and as a cultural change that always going to be a matter of pride for me. A tournament happens for a certain period of time but a culture happens over a long period of time and for that you need consistency for that you need more characters than just winning a tournament,” Kohli said.

On the impact of the criticism he received, Virat Kohli pointed out that he was part of the team that won the ODI World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013. He mentioned that there have been people, who have never won a World Cup.

He hinted that cricket experts were quick to judge his role as a captain and after just four ICC tournaments, he was tagged as a failed captain.

“Look, you play to win tournaments. I captained in Champions Trophy in 2017, 2019 World Cup, I captained in World Test Championship and T20 World Cup in 2021. After three (four) ICC tournaments, I was considered as a failed captain,” said Kohli on the RCB Podcast.

Virat Kohli shared that during that tough phase, apart from his family it was only MS Dhoni who reached out and understood him. “He reached out to me and you can rarely get in touch with him. If I call him on any random day, 99 percent he will not pick up (the phone), because he just does not look at the phone. So, for him to reach out to me…twice it has happened now and one of the things that he’d mentioned in the message while reaching out to me was that: ‘when you are expected to be strong and looked at as a strong individual people forget to ask how are you doing?’” Kohli said.