3 controversial decisions Virat Kohli took during his Test captaincy tenure

The Virat Kohli era of Indian Test captaincy has come to an end with the batter giving up the post recently. The 33-year old was very disappointed with the series loss to South Africa as India clearly came into the country as the favorites. He has already given up captaincy in the white-ball format as well as for RCB in IPL but will remain to be the most important batter in the lineup.

Kohli has come a long way in terms of taking the Test side to the number one position for a long time and has clearly been the most successful Indian skipper in the longer format. His stats do tell the story and he has set a big benchmark for the next captains in the queue. His aggressiveness and passion for the format as a captain have always been the hallmark and it is unfortunate that he will have to give after a loss.

Kohli’s personal form in recent times hasn’t been at his best yet as he has failed to score an international century for the last two years. Meanwhile, his decisions have made sometimes earned a lot of criticism while most of them have been appreciable.

Here are 3 controversial decisions Virat Kohli took during his Test captaincy tenure.

3. Backing Rahane and Pujara despite inconsistent form since 2020

This has been the talking point of the recently concluded Test series in South Africa as the management and Virat Kohli had continuously backed the experienced campaigners Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara despite their inconsistent form. The duo had been under the scanner for not being able to score runs consistently and they have been given a lot of chances after some odd fifties and centuries.

Pujara hasn’t scored a century for the last three years, while Rahane’s average has dropped significantly from the 50s in 2016 to as low as 38. Both these cricketers have been given a lot of respect for stepping up in tough conditions but they did not manage to repay the faith in the South Africa tour as they had a combined average of 21 in the series. With Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari doing well in their chances, a lot of experts and fans had wanted them out of the experienced duo to be replaced but Kohli seems to continue their backing.