Brisbane: Virat Kohli has emerged the next big thing of Indian cricket after the selectors anointed the the young Indian batsman as the vice captain of the team for the Asia Cup on Wednesday.
The Delhi middle-order batsman has the figures and the swagger for the selectors to leapfrog him over the stakes of a few others in the squad with captaincy ambitions.
Both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, it would appear, hardly stand a chance to be India’s future captain as well as Suresh Raina, who briefly looked to be in line of succession, at least in the one-day format.
Kohli’s figures speak for himself—the highest ODI run-getter in 2011 with 1381 runs from 34 matches at 47.62 with four centuries.
Sehwag, ostensibly ‘rested’ for Bangladesh, has been a miserable presence in both Tests and ODIs this summer, averaging 13 from five triangular series matches and finishing with 198 in Tests at 24.75.
Gambhir, despite his three 50s in one-dayers and two in Tests, has appeared a soft presence and doesn’t seem proactive enough to convey he has the energy for the job.
Raina’s stocks have fallen as a batsman against quick bowlers on bouncy and seaming tracks and he doesn’t appear a certainty in all three formats of the game.
With skipper MS Dhoni showing a wretched technique in the Tests, to go with his stated position to review his role in Test cricket in 2013, the selectors have obviously shown an urgency to streamline the succession issue. Kohli has thus been the chosen man, not least since he also in his junior days have led India to Under-19 World Cup triumph in Kuala Lumpur in 2009. (PTI)
