Virat Kohli is one of the best batsmen ever for India. He recently became the fastest player to score 25,000 runs in international cricket. He has scored 27 centuries in Tests, 46 in ODIs, and 1 in T20Is, earning him the title of ‘run-machine.’
Kohli was the captain of the Indian team until last year. He stepped down as captain in all formats and now focuses on being a key batter for the team. As captain, Kohli helped many players grow, but some did not receive his support.
Here, we discuss 5 players whose careers were affected by Virat Kohli.
5. Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh is a left-handed batsman who was the hero of India’s 2011 ODI World Cup win. He was named the player of the tournament for his great performances with both bat and ball. In 2011, he was diagnosed with cancer while at the peak of his career. After treatment, he returned to international cricket and played some impressive innings for India. However, in the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup final, he struggled to score, managing only 11 runs off 21 balls, which hurt India’s chances. His career declined after that. Some believe he could have played more for India if he had support from captain Virat Kohli. In June 2019, Yuvraj Singh retired from international cricket.
ALSO CHECK: Here are the top 5 ODI players who have scored the most runs in the history of the game
4. Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir was a strong opener for India. However, everyone knows about his fallout with Virat Kohli. During an IPL 2023 game, they had a verbal fight, which is still one of the ugliest moments in the league. Under Kohli’s captaincy, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma got more support as openers. Despite Gambhir performing well in the IPL, he never returned to the national team.
3. Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina is a top middle-order batsman from India. He was the first Indian to score a century in T20I cricket. Raina played over 200 ODI games and 78 T20I matches for India. He was part of the 2011 and 2015 ODI World Cups and had a successful career under MS Dhoni. However, under Virat Kohli, he did not get many chances to play. His last international game was an ODI against England in July 2018. When Dhoni retired in August 2020, Raina also announced his retirement, believing he wouldn’t get another chance to play for India. He was just 34 years old then.
2. Rahul Chahar
Rahul Chahar is another player on this list. He was selected for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 but did not play well as India was eliminated early. After that, Chahar was not chosen for any international matches. Despite this, he has good stats: 3 wickets in his only ODI game and 7 wickets in 6 T20Is with an average of 23.85 and an economy of 7.59. Chahar is still young at 23 and has a chance to return to international cricket in the future.
1. T Natarajan
T Natarajan was a talented player who disappeared from the national team despite performing well in the few matches he played. He took 3 wickets in the only Test he played against Australia in the 2021 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He also played 2 ODIs and 4 T20Is, taking 3 and 7 wickets respectively. Natarajan had a good economy rate of just over 7 in both formats. Despite his impressive performance, he hasn’t played for India since March 2021 when he last played against England. At that time, Virat Kohli was the captain and could have brought Natarajan back to the national team, but it didn’t happen.
ALSO READ: Let’s see the highest scores by Indian players in T20 matches
