Rashid Latif, the former Pakistan wicket-keeper batter has made a big claim that the internal issues in Team India cost them the ICC tournaments, during the captaincy tenure of Virat Kohli. The 54-year-old also went on to state that Virat Kohli was sacked as captain in ODIs when he had a plan and desire to win ICC trophies for India.

For the unversed, since taking over the role of full-time ODI captaincy in early 2017 from MS Dhoni, the Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli led the nation to two ICC tournaments. The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 campaign ended badly for him after Pakistan managed to defeat India by a big margin during the final at The Oval in London.

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Then, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 campaign for India didn’t end on a happy note, after New Zealand beat India in a close semi-final at Old Trafford, Manchester. But, despite the struggles in the knockout rounds of ICC tournaments, Virat Kohli had a fantastic captaincy record in ODIs, winning 65 out of 95 matches for the country.

Rashid Latif, on his YouTube channel, referenced the sacking of the Delhi-born cricketer as captain of the ODI format for Team India in December 2021, to make the point that he deserved a longer rope in the role to bring the coveted ICC trophy home. He said, as per the Times of India, “Virat Kohli had a direction and he wanted to win, but he was sacked. The team couldn't perform due to internal issues. They couldn't perform in ICC tournaments because, maybe, the captain didn't get the desired players. Or maybe he got it, but they weren't used.”

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The former Test cricketer for Pakistan talked about the problems for Team India at number four in the batting order in limited-overs cricket. He was quoted as saying, “Their team is still pretty good, they will get a no.4. The problem begins when the top-3 gets dismissed quickly. If the top-3 plays out the 25-30 overs, they will win easily. Their issue is the top-3 isn't performing how it used to.”