Former Australian cricketer Tom Moody has given a stark verdict on Virat Kohli’s tenure, calling it an era of Indian cricket that is unsatisfactory. Kohli took over the Indian captaincy in all three formats in 2017 and stepped down in January 2022.
An era that was expected to propel India to unprecedented heights unfortunately ended in disappointment as captain Kohli failed to lead India to triumph in the ICC Trophy. Under Kohli, India played in two finals and one semi-finalbut the team was never able to get the elusive silver.
Reflecting on Kohli’s captaincy in white-ball cricket, Moody said it was full of high expectations but ultimately led to disappointment.
“The Virat Kohli era was one of high expectations but ultimately disappointment,” Moody said of JioHotstar’s Rise of Champions.
Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh also felt that Kohli should have won trophies, given the quality of the team he led.
“The kind of team Virat had, they could have won three or four trophies. Nahi jeete kuch to karan honge but I still feel like unke paas acchi team thi (if they didn’t win, there must have been reasons but I still think they had a strong team),” said Harbhajan Singh.
However, legendary South African batsman AB de Villiers has come to Kohli’s defense and said that it is unfair to judge the captain only on the basis of trophies.
“Honestly, it annoys me that people always judge a captain only by whether he has won a World Cup. To say ‘the guy is useless because he hasn’t won a World Cup’ is unfair,” said AB de Villiers.
A look at Kohli’s captaincy career
Kohli took over as Test captain for the first time in 2015 after the retirement of MS Dhoni and led India in 68 matches. He led the team to 40 wins, suffered 17 losses and tied 11 games. Under Kohli’s leadership, India recorded a historic Test series victory in Australia in 2018–19 and also dominated the number one ranking from 2016 to 2021.
However, India failed to win the inaugural final of the 2021 World Test Championship (WTC) against New Zealand. In ODIs, Kohli has captained 95 matches, winning 65, losing 27, with one draw. Under his leadership, India finished as runners-up in the 2017 Champions Trophy and reached the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup.
In the T20Is, Kohli led India to 30 wins from 50 matches, suffering 16 defeats along with two draws. Despite boasting a stellar record as captain in all three formats, Kohli’s trophy cabinet as captain remained empty – a major blemish on his otherwise illustrious cricketing career.
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Issued by:
Rishabh Beniwal
Published on:
December 24, 2025
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