Former spinner Harbhajan Singh believes India should have won more trophies during Virat Kohli's reign as a white-ball captain as he had a good bunch of players under him.
Despite his immense success as a Test skipper, Kohli-led India failed to win a major title in white-ball cricket. They suffered a crushing 180-run loss against arch-rivals Pakistan in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, and also went down to New Zealand in the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup, while crashing out in the group stages of T20 World Cup 2021 after two heavy losses to Pakistan and New Zealand.
"The kind of team Virat had, they could have won three or four trophies. Nahi jeete kuch toh karan honge, but I still feel unke paas achhi team thi (If they did not win, there must be a reason, but I still think he had a very good team)," said Harbhajan during 'Rise of Champions' programme on JioHotstar.
Former batter Sanjay Manjrekar was not entirely convinced with team selectors during the Kohli-Shastri
However, South African batting icon and Kohli's close friend A B de Villiers offered a contrarian point of view, saying that "he feels irritated when players are judged on the basis of having won a World Cup."
"Frankly, it irritates me that people always judge a captain solely on whether they have won a World Cup. Saying 'that guy is useless because he has not won a World Cup' is unfair," he added.
Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody termed Kohli's captaincy in white-ball cricket as a "disappointment".
"The Virat Kohli era was an era of high expectation, but ultimately, disappointment," he stated.
Under Kohli, India played 50 T20Is, winning 30, losing 16, while two were tied and two ending in a no result, for a win percentage of 60 percent. He led India in 95 ODIs, winning 65, losing 27, one ending in a tie and two being no results.
© 2026