Virat Kohli’s very weak statement will trouble India in the remaining matches – Kapil Dev

Former captain Kapil Dev was surprised after he heard Virat Kohli’s ‘we were not brave enough’ comment following India’s eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.

After the defeat, Kohli said: “Quite bizarre. To be very honest and brutal upfront, I don’t think we were brave enough with bat or ball,” which did not go down well with Kapil, who feels it is the last thing a captain should say or feel.

According to him, his words will trouble the team in the remaining matches.

“For a big player like him, it is a very weak statement. If that is the kind of body language the team has and if that is the kind of thought process the captain has, it is really tough to lift the team. I felt a little strange hearing those words. He isn’t that kind of a player,” Kapil said on ABP News.

“He is a fighter. I think he got lost in the moment or something. A captain should not say words like ‘we were not brave enough. You are playing for your country and he has the passion. But when you say such words, fingers will definitely be pointed.”

Kapil added that no amount of criticism is going to be enough for the kind of performance Virat Kohli & Co. dished out against the Kiwis.

“I don’t have words. How much can we even criticise? A team that claims to have played the IPL and gained practice, when it plays like this, there will be criticism. When you win, no amount of praise is enough, but right now, no amount of criticism is enough because they did not play the kind of cricket expected of them. You fight and lose, we understand. But today there was not a single performance which we can be happy about,” Kapil said.