With his captaincy coming to an abrupt end after the Indian team's unexpected departure from the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup in the UAE, Virat Kohli's fans have descended on Twitter.
Although some cricket fans have praised him for bringing a new dimension to the national side, injecting a degree of intensity and aggression which had hitherto been lacking, others declared him the "unluckiest captain India has ever had" because of him stumbling at the last hurdle as skipper.
Kohli has led India in four ICC tournaments - the Champions Trophy in 2017, the One-Day International World Cup in 2019, the Test Championships in 2021 and the ongoing T20 World Cup.
India lost to New Zealand in the semifinals and the final respectively in the ODI World Cup and the Test Championships, and were beaten by Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final.
And even though Kohli's team ended the T20 World Cup with a comprehensive 9-wicket win over Scotland on Monday, his side's inability to win in the Middle East further extended the 33-year-old cricketer's drought in ICC events.
Although Kohli was disappointed after India failed to make it to the next stage of the tournament, he reiterated that he was immensely proud of the squad and what they had achieved as a unit in the past few years.
"It's been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective. It's been six, seven years of intense cricket every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you. It's been great fun, a great bunch of guys and we've really performed well as a team," he said.
"I know we have not gone far in this World Cup, but we have had some good results in T20 and enjoyed playing together. It's a game of margins, T20 cricket. You talk about two overs of cricket with intent in the first two games and things could have been different."
India lost to New Zealand in the semifinals and the final respectively in the ODI World Cup and the Test Championships, and were beaten by Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final.
And even though Kohli's team ended the T20 World Cup with a comprehensive 9-wicket win over Scotland on Monday, his side's inability to win in the Middle East further extended the 33-year-old cricketer's drought in ICC events.
Although Kohli was disappointed after India failed to make it to the next stage of the tournament, he reiterated that he was immensely proud of the squad and what they had achieved as a unit in the past few years.
"It's been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective. It's been six, seven years of intense cricket every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you. It's been great fun, a great bunch of guys and we've really performed well as a team," he said.
"I know we have not gone far in this World Cup, but we have had some good results in T20 and enjoyed playing together. It's a game of margins, T20 cricket. You talk about two overs of cricket with intent in the first two games and things could have been different."
"We were not brave enough, as I said," the star batsman concluded.
Kohli made it clear in September that the T20 World Cup would be his last tournament as India's T20 skipper.
Kohli made it clear in September that the T20 World Cup would be his last tournament as India's T20 skipper.
However, he will continue to lead the Indian cricket team in ODIs and Test matches.
The sport has three formats – Test matches which last five days, One-Day Internationals (ODIs) of 50 overs a side, and T20s (games of 20 overs per side).