The Virat Kohli captaincy saga; One era ends, another set to begin

Bengaluru, January 16: Sunday morning India woke up to the news of Virat Kohli's resignation as Indian cricket team's Test captain and now the focus has turned on to likely successor in the longest format of the game.

In a sudden development on Saturday (January 15) evening, Kohli quit as India's captain in the white flannels, a day after India lost the series 1-2 to South Africa.

"It's been seven years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance everyday to take the team in the right direction. I've done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there," Kohli said while making the announcement through his official Twitter handle.

Virat Kohli quits Test captaincy

The 33-year-old had already relinquished the Twenty20 captaincy after ICC T20 World Cup 2021 held in the UAE, while he was divested of the One-day International leadership controversially by the selectors, a move which drew flak from all quarters

During his tenure as Indian Test captain, Kohli led the team to the top of International Cricket Council (ICC) world rankings and the Men In Blue recorded a memorable series win in Australia.

He also led the team to the final of the ICC World Test Championship final in Lord's in June 2021, where they lost to Kane Wiliamson-led New Zealand.

Virat Kohli Test Captaincy Record: Stats of India's most successful Test captain

Kohli had taken over Test captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2014, midway through the Test series in Australia, leading India in 68 matches, winning 40 and losing 17.

Rohit Sharma is currently the designated skipper for India in the shorter formats. However KL Rahul will be leading India in the upcoming ODI series against South Africa as Sharma is recovering from an injury.

Virat Kohli quits India Test captaincy; KL Rahul front-runner to take over leader role in longest format

Right now only the duo is in the mix to succeed Kohli as skipper in the white flannels, a move confirmed by informed sources as well.

"At the moment Rohit and Rahul are the only two names that come to mind to succeed him, " a senior official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

"We will have to sit and discuss to come up with Kohli's successor. Rohit is already the white-ball captain, so let's see," the BCCI source added.

Rohit, 34, took over the Twenty20 job from Kohli following India's World Cup exit, and later replaced him as captain in the 50-over format as well.

Rahul led India in the second South Africa Test after Kohli missed the match due to injury.

Other names in contention include Rishabh Pant, who scored an unbeaten 100 -- albeit for a losing cause -- in the third Test in Cape Town.

After the series loss in South Africa, Kohli had said that there was "no running away" from India's batting collapses every now and then. The team squandered a 1-0 lead and a golden opportunity to script a maiden Test series win in South Africa.

Besides the batters' failures, Kohli listed inconsistency, lack of application, lapse in concentration and their inability to seize the crunch moments as reasons for the team's loss in the three-match rubber.

India won the series-opener in Centurion by 113 runs, but surprisingly caved in against an inexperienced South African team in the remaining two matches at Johannesburg and Cape Town, with their batters letting them down on more than one occasion.

He missed the second Test due to back spasm and had returned for series decider, but could not change the fortunes of the team.

All good things should come to an end as Kohli tweeted and all one can say is as curtains have descended on one one era, the stage is set for the other to begin.