Virat Kohli’s tenure as India’s white-ball captain has returned to the spotlight after a discussion on JioHotstar’s Rise of Champions, where a panel revisited the gap between India’s on-paper strength and the trophies that didn’t arrive in ICC events during his leadership stint.
Kohli’s period in charge is often split into two separate narratives: a celebrated, aggressive Test run and a more debated white-ball record. The panel conversation leaned into the latter, with the central question being whether India under Kohli underachieved in limited-overs tournaments despite possessing what many viewed as a near-complete squad.
Former Australian captain Aaron Finch first underlined the burden of expectation that trails Indian teams into major tournaments. “When you are an Indian team with so much experience and skill, people look at the team sheet and assume they have to win. It is a remarkable team, but the reputation carries its own weight as well.”
The expectation vs outcome debate
Harbhajan Singh was more direct, arguing that India’s resources should have produced a bigger trophy haul. “The kind of team Virat had, they could have won three or four trophies. Nahi jeete kuch to karan honge, but I still feel like unke paas acchi team thi (if they did not win, there must have been reasons, but I still think they have a solid team).”
Sanjay Manjrekar widened the lens, pointing to the decision-making around the squad itself rather than placing the entire outcome on the captain. “Team selection under Ravi and Virat was always my biggest concern.”
The discussion also featured a strong pushback against judging leadership only through the prism of World Cups. AB de Villiers said he feels irritated when players are judged on the basis of having won a World Cup. He then made the case more explicit, challenging the simplicity of that framing in modern cricket. “Frankly, it irritates me that people always judge a captain solely on whether they have won a World Cup. Saying ‘that guy is useless because he has not won a World Cup’ is unfair.”
Still, the most definitive summation came from Tom Moody, who framed Kohli’s white-ball era as one that did not meet the weight of its own promise. “The Virat Kohli era was an era of high expectation, but ultimately, disappointment.”
The remarks reflect how Kohli’s white-ball legacy continues to be assessed through both results and context, a debate that tends to resurface whenever Indian cricket enters a new tournament cycle, and the conversation turns, again, to what a title-winning standard should look like.
