"Virat Kohli should have continued for longer as test captain," feels former batting coach Sanjay Bangar

With 40 wins, Virat Kohli ended his tenure as India’s most successful test captain.

Former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar has given an interesting opinion on Virat Kohli, saying that the former Indian test skipper should have had a longer reign at the helm of the test team.

Kohli stepped down as India’s test captain at the start of 2022, after returning from South Africa with a 2-1 series loss.

It was a controversial phase in Kohli’s career wherein he had a dispute with the then BCCI President Sourav Ganguly. Kohli was earlier sacked as the ODI skipper after he had stepped down as the T20I captain.

Kohli bowed out as India’s most successful test captain with 40 wins in 68 matches, including seven wins in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries. Under Kohli, India became the first Asian team to win a test series in Australia.

Virat Kohli’s captaincy phase was similar to Sourav Ganguly’s: Sanjay Bangar

Bangar, who worked with Kohli for a significant time as India’s batting coach, said that the Delhi-born shouldn’t have left the test captaincy at that point.

“I personally feel that he should have continued for longer as a Test captain because he probably captained India in 65 Test matches, and one of the things I feel is that he could have probably continued as a Test captain for a longer period,” Bangar said on the Rao podcast.

Bangar observed similarities in the captaincy styles of Kohli and Ganguly as both of them had a heavy focus on winning away from home.

“I think looking back Virat Kohli’s captaincy phase was similar to Sourav Ganguly’s phase was also, since 2001 to maybe 2004-05 where the onus was on wanting to win Test matches abroad. I believe that broadly, different methods. Everybody wants to do or achieve that but I think some methods work and some didn’t,” the former batting coach added.

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