BCCI should appoint Virat Kohli as Test captain: Azharuddin

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin today said that BCCI should think of appointing young Virat Kohli as the Test captain after India's drubbing in the longest format in the recently concluded series in England.
The 51-year-old came down heavily on skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and said,"You don't survive as a captain. If you perform then only you stay for a long time. If you don't perform, there is no survival and you perish as simple as that. The BCCI has to take some action. May be a different captain might help, you never know."
He spoke at the launch of Vijay Amritraj's Champions League tennis tournament here, in which he is the co-owner of the Chandigarh franchise.

"You don't get anything readymade. We can only find good captains only if the chance is given. If you don't give a chance, then how will you know. If I was the selector, I would give the chance to Virat Kohli. Fine, he has not done well in England, it was a one-off performance. If you don't put responsibility on the players, then how will you know they will perform," Azharuddin who played 99 Tests and 334 ODIs said.
"You have to be very good in all forms of the good. A good player will excel in all formats of the game. Like there are some players who are meant only ODIs, we should have different captains.

"It is very hard for the captain to concentrate on three formats at one point. We can have different captain for different forms, like every other country has done," he said.
Kohli had failed miserably with the bat during the series and Azharuddin said the 25-year old was found wanting.
"Technically, both Kohli and (Cheteshwar) Pujara were found wanting in England. In England, you should look to play forward; you can't play from the crease. The main thing was that they allowed the bowlers to bowl to their weaknesses; if you allow the bowlers to bowl well then you are always in trouble," he said.