Mahendra Singh Dhoni handed over the white ball captaincy to Virat Kohli in 2017. Since then, Kohli has led India to four ICC events but failed to collect a solitary trophy. He has led India to No.1 ranking in Test and other formats but lacking an empty cabinet under his tenure is something he often gets reminded of.
It’s been more than nine years since India won an ICC event. They came close thrice during the 2017 Champions Trophy, 2019 World Cup and 2021 World Test Championship.
Kohli led India on all these occasions, but lost the finals to Pakistan in 2017, defeated by Blackcaps in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup, and lost in the final of the 2021 World Test championship before crashing out of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Meanwhile, a World Cup-winning Indian seamer has opined his views on these failed chances and made some bold statements.
Sreesanth, who was a part of the 2011 World Cup winning squad, said that he would have won three World Cups for India under Kohli’s leadership.
In his interview with CricChat, he said, “If I would have been a part of the team under Virat’s captaincy, India would have won the World Cup in 2015, 2019 & 2021.”
However, Dhoni was the skipper of the 2015 World Cup side, not Kohli. He was quick to rectify that.
It is worth mentioning that Sreesanth was not a part of the original squad for the World Cup. Although, due to Praveen Kumar’s injury, he pulled out and Sreesanth was named his replacement.