The India cricket team captain has had quite miserable few weeks as his team lost two back to back Test matches to England in the ongoing 5-Test series. First Virat Kohli came under condemnation for his poor captaincy when the Indian team lost the first Test match in Edgbaston.
The margin of defeat became even worse for Kohli when the team faced England at Lord’s, where the visitors were annihilated by an innings and 259 runs. The two defeats have now evoked angry reactions, not just from fans but also former cricketers such as Harbhajan Singh, Bishan Singh Bedi and VVS Laxman among others.
Faced with widespread anger, Kohli on Tuesday took to Facebook to post an emotional message for his fans. He wrote, “Sometimes we win and other times we learn. You never give up on us and we promise to never give up on you either. Onwards and upwards.”
His post received nearly one lakh likes and other reactions on Facebook, while eliciting more than 3,500 comments. While there were many fans who supported the Indian captain in his moment of despair, not everyone was generous though.
One fan sarcastically wrote, ” Come on kohli…arrange next 3 test matches in India…then you are going to win the series 3-2. No.1 test team for a reason.” Another fan wrote, “Drop all the sissys that worry about hair and beards instead of batting.. bring in the under 19s top 3..they will do a better job.” “Time to give up captaincy mate, bad decisions in both tests, wrong team selection and not using the right batsman/blowers at the right time.. disappointed and let down by the effort.. probably the worst in the last 10 years.. focus on your batting and make Ashwin the captain and do India a favour,” wrote another angry Indian fan.
Going by the anger and demands for sacking of Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri, it’s clear that the Indian team simply can’t afford to lose the third Test, which starts on 18 August in Nottingham.
