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via Imago

via Imago

As the group league games of ICC World Cup 2019 has been done and dusted, semi-finals are all set to take place from July 9?where the first game will see the battle between the tournament favourite India and New Zealand at?Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, the second one will be seen between the host England and the defending champion Australia on Thursday, July 11 at?Edgbaston, Birmingham. While Kohli-led India are doing wonders, former India player Gautam Gambhir has some different views on Virat Kohli’s captaincy.

India have registered seven wins from their nine games where they lost only to England and the game against New Zealand was washed out. They finished at the top spot in the points table. Nearly all the players have been in great form, be it batsmen or bowlers.

Opener Rohit Sharma has been in a formidable form where he smashed five centuries. Along with him, the other opener KL Rahul also has been in good touch. Even, the captain Virat Kohli is also in good form and has already scored five fifties in the tournament and leading his side from the front. Pace battery led by Jasprit Bumrah are taking wickets on a regular basis. Keeping this form in mind, India are undoubtedly the favourite for the game.

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However, Gautam Gambhir felt Virat Kohli has been doing good as a captain because he has Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni with him. He said this in a recent interview. He gave the example of Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team who never won a single title in the IPL under Kohli’s captaincy whereas Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians to their fourth title this year and MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings won the trophy three times. Even, Gautam Gambhir also led Kolkata Knight Riders to win the title two times.

“Virat Kohli is good as India captain because Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni are there. If you are talking about Virat Kohli as captain then he would have won the title for RCB in these 8-10 years. RCB most of the time finished at seventh or eighth place. Virat Kohli might come within the top 4 batsmen but there is a huge difference between him and Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni,” commented Gautam Gambhir.

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“For now, MS Dhoni is there with Virat Kohli and in IPL MS Dhoni is not there with Kohli where you can see the difference. Everyone knows there is a hell and heaven difference when he captains for RCB and India because there are MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma for giving you advice. For RCB, there is no one to give you advice. This is the reason there is a difference between him and the other two,” he further added.

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However, it will be interesting to see how everyone reacts after this comment and which team will have the last laugh in the game.