Virat Kohli capable of leading India to victory - Pietersen

Post Ajinkya Rahane’s success in Australia, there has been a constant debate about whether or not Kohli should step down as the Indian captain. Kohli definitely hasn’t been at his best when it comes to leadership and has lost his last 4 Tests (2 in NZ, 1 in Aus and the 1st Test against Eng). Sometimes his decisions are hard to understand. He played Saha and Shaw ahead of Pant and Gill in Australia, in the previous Test he opted for Nadeem instead of Kuldeep. All these decisions have backfired on him that has got Kohli in the firing line of many experts.

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However, former England batsman, Kevin Pietersen has come to Kohli’s rescue and said that he’s capable of leading India to victory in the second Test. Pietersen termed the buzz about Kohli’s poor tactics as a ‘distraction’.He further said that the debate of the better skipper between Kohli and Rahane is impossible to avoid.

"I absolutely don't expect things to change, but it is impossible to avoid the continuing debate around the Indian Test match captaincy. Virat Kohli has now lost four consecutive Test matches as skipper and has Ajinkya Rahane, who just led India to a famous series win in Australia, in his side. On social media, every radio station, every television channel and every news channel, there are very deep discussions around what should happen. Captaining your country is very difficult and unfortunately, this is the nature of the beast. It's one more distraction that Kohli doesn't need but he is, of course, capable of leading his side to a victory in the second Test to quieten things down a bit," said Kevin Pietersen.

Talking about Stuart Broad, Pietersen said that the English pacer will be under tremendous pressure to perform in the second Test. He said that while Anderson proved his skills with a bowling masterclass in Chennai, Broad has a lot to prove in the next game.

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"Whereas Anderson has now conquered each country he has played in, the one thing that Stuart Broad hasn't done is performed in India. His record -- 10 wickets in six matches at an average of nearly 54 -- isn't spectacular at all. Anderson and Broad are hailed as an incredible partnership, and of course, they have been, but this is the difference between the two. If Broad wants to be globally recognized as a bowler that delivers in all conditions, he's actually under quite a lot of pressure to perform in the second Test," said Kevin Pietersen.