India's captain Virat Kohli
Amid growing calls for Virat Kohli to step down from the leadership role, former England spinner Graeme Swann has backed the skipper to continue leading India despite the country's eight-year stretch for ICC silverware.
Though India suffered an eight-wicket defeat in the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand, Swann feels it would be a "crime against cricket" to remove Kohli from captaincy.
Under Kohli, India has finished as the No.1-ranked Test side for five consecutive years. He recently also surpassed MS Dhoni's record for most Test matches as the captain of the Indian team.
"Virat Kohli is an absolute champion and a superstar. He has added steel to the Indian team. You only have to see his passion whenever a wicket goes, his face when there is a misfield. He is 100 per cent committed to the job," Swann told SportsKeeda.
"To get rid of Virat Kohli at the moment, when you have such a good captain, would be an absolute crime against cricket. I don't think they should look elsewhere. India lost that game because they were underprepared and under-cooked going into that Test match."
While New Zealand entered the marquee final after playing a two-Test series against hosts England, India just had intra-squad matchups to get accustomed to the conditions. Swann said India looked "rusty" in the batting department due to lack of match practice in English conditions.
"India just had net practice in Southampton. Nothing beats preparing for a Test match like actual Test match play.
"So New Zealand had everything in their favour when it came to who was going to win that game. That showed during the five days as India looked slightly rusty especially some of the batsmen," Swann further said.
