T20 World Cup 2021 | Virat Kohli could offer leadership straightaway to Rohit Sharma against Namibia, says Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar has said that Virat Kohli could well offer the leadership role to Rohit Sharma ahead of his last game as a T20I captain against Namibia on Monday, November 8. India and Namibia, both of whom are out of the T20 World Cup 2021 semifinals race, will face-off in last Super 12s clash.

Virat Kohli had announced in September that he will step down from India's T20I captaincy after the completion of T20 World Cup 2021, citing workload management reasons. He has already resigned from the leadership role in the IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Kohli had taken over the reins from MS Dhoni as India's white-ball captain in Januray 2017. Kohli has led India in 49 T20I games and the team has won 29, lost 16 and has a win percentage of 63.82. The Namibia game will be his 50th and the last as a T20I captain.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Manjrekar in an interaction with Dafa News, said that if Kohli wishes to set a new trend, he can straightaway offer the captaincy to Sharma. 

“If Virat Kohli wants to sort of start a new trend, the inevitable future in T20 cricket, he could maybe offer the leadership straightaway to Rohit Sharma in this final game. Then Rohit Sharma may not be rested and play as captain,” said Manjrekar. 

This fixture will also mark the end of head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar. Aakash Chopra believed that both Kohli and Shastri would be disappointed after an unsuccessful campaign.

“This is where one story is ending. It is Virat Kohli’s first and last T20 World Cup as captain, he will not be seen again as a captain in the shortest format. Virat and Ravi Shastri’s pairing is also finishing here. It was an extremely disappointing campaign for Virat Kohli as a captain,” said Chopra. 

“He will not be seen as the Indian coach hereafter. If you talk about World Cups or ICC events, you could have won at least one of the three trophies, whether it was the 2019 World Cup or the ICC mace or this World Cup. If you play three World Cups and don’t win even one of them and you don’t even qualify in one, it might remain as a thorn in his [Shastri’s] mind.”