In a disappointing end to his last ICC tournament as a captain, Virat Kohli couldn’t guide Team India past the group stage of the T20 World Cup 2021. The Men in Blue were sent home packing after their first two defeats against the most competitive sides in Group-2 Pakistan and New Zealand who handed India heavy losses in the initial Super 12 matches of their World T20 campaign.
Unfortunately, for Kohli, it meant that there would not be any ICC silverware on his CV as far as the shortest T20 format is concerned, to say the least.
However, the way Kohli rallied behind his troops even in the wake of massive defeats to turn the team’s mental strength around and stage an impressive comeback in the showpiece event by winning three back-to-back games by significant margins just goes to show how much character and ability existed in the ranks of the Kohli-led outfit.
Despite exiting the T20 World Cup due to a couple of bad games against a quality Pakistani side and a well-oiled New Zealand peaking at the right time, Kohli and Co. proved their mettle as one of the better teams in the ICC competition who just stumbled upon a bad patch of results early on.
Nonetheless, if only Afghanistan could have managed to pull off an unlikely win over the Kiwis, then the Indian side would have surely made it through to the semi-finals on the back of emphatic victories against Afghanistan and Scotland that boosted their net run rate to eventually be the best in Group-2 towards the end.
Resting on hopes of a miraculous comeback, the Blackcaps led by Kane Williamson spoiled Kohli’s party as they held their nerve to ensure that India’s final game against Namibia was reduced to a dead rubber.
With a terrific overall performance with the bat, star opener KL Rahul, who was in exquisite form during the final three games ended up as India’s highest run-scorer in the competition. Rahul finished with excellent numbers as he scored a total of 194 runs at an average of 48.5 and a strike rate of 152.75, with three fifties in the ICC T20 WC 2021.
After making a final appearance as India’s T20I captain in the game against Namibia in Dubai, Kohli bowed out on a high as the 2007 World T20 champions thrashed the Namibians by 9 wickets to register their final victory under the Shastri-Kohli era that will go down in the history of Indian cricket as one of the most successful and improved teams even though they could not finish on the ICC podium as no.1 in the limited-overs format.
The Bangalore-born cricketer gave a heartfelt shout-out to the outgoing Indian T20I skipper Virat Kohli by posting a much-deserved and genuine praiseworthy note of appreciation t the end of Team India’s T20 WC 2021 campaign.
“Not the ideal World Cup for us, but we learn and grow. Grateful to all our fans for the love and support. Thank you to our coaches for helping us grow as cricketers. A big shout-out to @imVkohli for being a leader who led by example and for everything you have done for us,” tweeted Rahul.
While Kohli has stepped down as the T20I captain and would return as a batsman sooner than later, a renewed Indian team helmed by head coach Rahul Dravid and new T20I captain Rohit Sharma will be taking on New Zealand in a bilateral series at home later this year
