'Taken his team in the right direction': Alastair Cook lauds former Test captain Virat Kohli

Former England captain Alastair Cook stated that Virat Kohli “has taken his team in the right direction” during his tenure as the Test captain of the Men in Blue. Cook wrote in his column for The Times that India is still the No 1 team in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, despite losing the final of the World Test Championship last year and “ so much of that is down to the hard edge” instilled by Kohli. [caption id=“attachment_10277391” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] File image of Virat Kohli. AP[/caption] In his column, the former England captain wrote that “If ever a team was shaped in the mould of their captain, it is this India side." Virat Kohli stepped down on Saturday, 15 January as the captain of the Indian Test team. With 40 wins in the 68 Tests that he captained, Kohli remains the most successful Test captain of the country as well the one with most number of appearances (68). The 33-year-old batsman’s seven-year-long stint as Test captain saw the Indian side be ranked the No 1 Test team five years in a row. The Indian side won 24 Tests at home under Kohli’s tenure. Furthermore, the 33-year-old never lost a home Test series under his captaincy, winning all 11 series played in India. Under his captaincy, the Men in Blue won seven Tests in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) countries, which the highest for an Asian captain. Kohli also holds the record for scoring most Test centuries (20) as captain of the Indian side. Internationally, only Graeme Smith’s record of 28 centuries is ahead of him. Kohli is the fourth most successful captain in the world, with only Smith and Australian skippers Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh ahead of him. Kohli had earlier stepped down as the T20 and ODI captain of India last year. While Rohit Sharma was announced as the captain for both the white ball formats, no official announcement has been made as to who will succeed Kohli as captain of the Test team.