Scores of cricket fans have been deriding Virat Kohli for his captaincy of the national side ever since India's cricket team lost the World Test Championship final, their third successive loss in an International Cricket Council (ICC) event.
New Zealand defeated India by eight wickets in the final of the tournament at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, Hampshire, UK to emerge as the inaugural World Test Champions on Wednesday.
After India were bowled out for 170 in their second innings, New Zealand chased the target with relative ease, much to the dismay of Indian fans.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and veteran batsman Ross Taylor were involved in a crucial 96-run partnership after India's Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed both Tom Latham and Devon Conway relatively cheaply.
Taylor and Williamson's partnership eventually proved to be decisive in the match as New Zealand lifted their first ICC trophy in 21 years. They had won the inaugural ICC Champions Trophy back in 2000.
India started the day on Wednesday at 64/2 with a lead of only 32 runs after New Zealand posted 249 in response to India's total of 217 in the first innings. However, India quickly lost Kohli and experienced batsman Cheteshwar Pujara to Kyle Jamieson.
Subsequently, the Indian side was bundled out for a paltry 170 runs with Tim Southee being the pick of the New Zealand bowlers with figures of 4/48.
Trent Boult and Jamieson took, respectively, three and two wickets.
Many of India's cricket lovers are finding it hard to believe the loss. They are not at all happy with how things turned out and are demanding a change in captaincy. They want Kohli to be sacked as India's captain and either Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma to replace him.
"Time to say goodbye"🎶 #Kohli & #RaviShastri, we all Indians can't handle it more.
— आyush (@aayushandilya) June 24, 2021
Last we won the #ICC title under #Dhoni captaincy.
Hope #IndianCricketTeam will keep our words and look further for new #captaincy.
We all are waiting #RohitSharma as a new captain. @BCCI pic.twitter.com/IC9TFAqksZ
Now the time has come to make a new coach and a new captain.#T20WC #captaincy #INDvNZ #WTC21 #ViratKohli #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/AIfWn8eDIJ
— Dinesh LiLawat (@imDL45) June 23, 2021
And the award for Best Actor goes to #Kohli what an immature #captaincy #RaviShastri #ICCWorldTestChampionship #ICCtestchampionship @BCCI pic.twitter.com/D0zQzJhvmr
— CS Parth Shah 🇮🇳 (@parrthshah) June 23, 2021
However, former Indian cricketer Sanjeev Sharma disagreed with the fans.
Speaking to Sputnik on Thursday, Sharma said: "Virat Kohli's captaincy shouldn't be blamed for India's loss in the WTC final. India actually lost the match because of their batsmen, who didn't apply themselves at the wicket.
"I feel India missed Bhuvneshwar Kumar in Southampton because the conditions were suitable for swing bowling and he is one Indian bowler who can move the ball around in the air with ease."
He added that "Mohammed Siraj should have been in India's playing XI because he is one bowler who could have exploited the conditions at the Rose Bowl much better. Like Bhuvneshwar, Siraj can also swing the ball both in the air and off the pitch, and the New Zealand batsmen would have found themselves in big trouble against him. There shouldn't be any change in India's captaincy right now, because the team needs to forget this defeat quickly and focus on the upcoming England series."
