There have been numerous debates regarding the captaincy styles of the two great Indian stalwarts, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Team India had their fair share of success under both the captains. Kohli was instrumental in taking India to new heights in the longest format, but his failure to deliver big titles was a thing of concern during his captaincy tenure.
Follow The Sporting News India on WhatsApp
Whereas Rohit, who seemed to take things a bit more calmly, has delivered back-to-back ICC titles after losing out on the World Test Championship (WTC) and the ODI World Cup in 2023.
While both have done enough for India in their respective careers, the debate over who's a better captain still goes on. Recently, Ravichandran Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy sat down together to dissect the captaincy styles of both players.
R Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy make their pick on the captaincy debate
Having played under the leadership of both Kohli and Rohit, Chakravarthy explained how Kohli never backed down in tough situations and always showed up when it mattered the most. He further explained that a lot of thinking used to happen behind the scenes when Rohit was the skipper.
Speaking on Ashwin's YouTube channel, Chakravarthy said, "Virat is a true leader. When you just see him, when you just observe what he is doing and you must have also noticed the match against Pakistan, you were also there. We lost the first two wickets to Shaheen Shah Afridi. But when Virat came, he stepped down and hit Shaheen for six, and it was so inspiring and motivational, but how he is giving it back and all this.
"So Virat is exceptional, as in the way he can he can cheer up everyone. So the main thing was whenever I spoke to him his answers were very motivational and in that thing and when I spoke to Rohit Sharma, it was very tactical. So it was two different parts."
Ashwin agreed with Chakravarthy's opinion, labelling Virat as the inspirational one and Rohit as the tactical one who puts his head into the game much more than Kohli.
MORE: Gambhir warned it's time to deliver results in Test cricket
"So one is inspirational, the other one more tactical, which I kind of resonate. Because Virat goes and does things. He is there in your eye line, the way he trains, the way he practices, what he does. But Rohit does understand a lot more tactics in terms of what he does. Everything is tactical in terms of field placement, this batsman, this shot and all that."
Kohli left the T20 captaincy in 2021 following a disastrous World Cup and was subsequently removed from the ODI format too, as Rohit came in to replace him. Rohit currently serves as the skipper of the ODI format only, after stepping down from the longest format just ahead of the England series.
Both players retired from the T20 format after the World Cup in 2024. Their Test retirements also happened very recently, which sent shockwaves across the nation. The debate regarding their leadership will go on till the two players decide to hang up their boots someday, but there should be no doubts regarding their contribution to Indian cricket.