'What is the guarantee that another captain can win India an ICC trophy?' - Kamran Akmal backs Virat Kohli after WTC final loss

The long-standing debate of whether India captain Virat Kohli continue to be the leader in all the three formats of the game has again become a hot topic of discussion, due to India’s loss in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand.

This is Kohli’s third loss as a captain in ICC events and his style of leadership and tactics have again come under the microscope of the critics and experts. However, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal has lavished praise on Kohli and felt he cannot be entirely blamed for the WTC final loss.

Already the fans started a meme fest on Twitter and compared Kohli to former India skipper MS Dhoni purely on the basis of three trophies won by the latter. Akmal, though, backed Kohli to continue to be the leader due to the 32-year-old’s match-winning abilities to win the game on his own.

While speaking on the ‘My Master Cricket Coach’ YouTube channel, the former wicketkeeper-batter said Kohli is just a bit unlucky to not get over the finish line in the global events.

India not winning is not completely Virat Kohli’s fault: Kamran Akmal

“Virat Kohli is a big player and a fantastic captain. He is aggressive and very emotional. Any captain who has come in has only taken Indian cricket forward. It started with Sourav Ganguly, then Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni took over. Yes, everyone has complained that Virat Kohli hasn’t won any ICC trophy. But, apart from that, he has won almost everything. India have won so many series’ under Virat Kohli.”

The former Pakistan player concluded by saying that the Indian management needs to look at the problem of not winning the ICC events in recent years and analyze where they are going wrong.

“It (India not winning ICC events) is not completely Virat Kohli’s fault. What is the guarantee that another captain can come in and win India an ICC trophy? As a team, they have to analyze why they are not winning the big events. They reach the last stages but fail at the final hurdle. It will be unfair to blame only Virat Kohli. According to me, as long as he feels that he can do the job, he should continue,” he added.