'Was surprised as every time we had conversation he...': Bharat Arun feels Kohli 'had couple of years as Indian captain'

Virat Kohli's decision to step down as the captain of the Indian Test team came as a surprise to the entire cricket fraternity, even those who knew him closely as a player, like the former India bowling coach Bharat Arun, who feels that the 33-year-old still had a few years left in him to lead the national side in the traditional format.

Talking to News9 about the shocking decision, Arun said that he was taken aback by the news because Kohli was always passionate in his discussion about Test cricket and wanting the team to be dominating force in the format.

“I was personally surprised that Virat had given up captaincy because every time we had dialogues he was so passionate about leading the country. He wanted India to be a dominating force in the world and I thought he had set a wonderful foundation. I personally feel that Virat had at least a couple of years to captain the country,” he said.

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Kohli had stepped down from T20I captaincy after the 2021 World T20 in the UAE and a month later was removed from ODI captaincy which was followed by a controversial period in Indian cricket, highlighting an underlying issue between the 33-year-old and the BCCI. Later in January, a day after India lost the Test series in South Africa, Kohli took to Twitter to announce that he is stepping down from Test captaincy. The ODI series that followed saw Kohli playing as a player for the first time in seven years.

Arun also compared the job of an Indian cricket team captain to that of the Prime Minister of India, calling it the next "most enviable job".

“I watched MS Dhoni, the coolest mind you could ever have. Nothing fazes him. If you have a mind that is cool, calm, calculative … that is the best state to take decisions on the go, because the decisions have to be very dynamic. You are making decisions on the go. Next to the Prime Minister, the Indian captain is the most enviable job in the country, so I think somebody who can take the pressure [is the right fit],” he added.