Kohli will have to give up his ego, says ex-captain Dev

 NEW DELHI - Virat Kohli needs to shed his ego to play under a new leader after giving up the Test captaincy, cricket icon
Kapil Dev said as uncertainty swirled about the future of the national team.

  Kohli, 33, announced his surprise departure late on Saturday having already
quit as T20 captain last year and been sacked as head of the one-day side
soon afterwards.

  Dev, who led India to glory in the 1983 World Cup, welcomed Kohli's
decision, saying he was "going through a rough time" and "appeared to be
under a lot of pressure".

  But he said that Kohli will now have to knuckle down and bite his tongue if
he is to remain in the team under a new captain.

  "Even Sunil Gavaskar played under me. I played under K Srikkanth and
(Mohammad) Azharuddin. I had no ego," Dev, 63, was quoted as saying to the
Mid-Day newspaper, referring to other greats of the era.

  "Virat will have to give up his ego and play under a young cricketer. This
will help him and Indian cricket. Virat should guide the new captain, new
players. We cannot lose Virat, the batsman... no way."

  The race to succeed Kohli is seen as a contest between Rohit Sharma and KL
Rahul and -- in distant third place -- the younger Rishabh Pant, 24.

  TV commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted on Monday that Ravichandran Ashwin and
Jasprit Bumrah should also be considered.

  Rohit, 34, is already Twenty20 and ODI captain, and has led the Mumbai
Indians to five victories in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

  With Rohit injured, Rahul, 29, captained India in the recent second Test in
South Africa and will lead the one-day side in the upcoming series beginning
Wednesday.

  - 'Crisis' -

  The outspoken and sometimes combative Kohli's resignation stoked rumours
about rifts with the sport's national governing body, the Board of Control
for Cricket in India (BCCI).

  Kohli and BCCI chief Saurav Ganguly in December had publicly contradicted
each other over his stepping down as white-ball captain.

  The Hindustan Times reported that Kohli had spurned an offer by the BCCI to
quit with fanfare after his 100th Test in Bangalore in February when India
host Sri Lanka.

  "I think clearly there was disenchantment between Kohli and the
authorities," veteran cricket journalist Ayaz Memon told AFP.

  "You don't need any statement, you can sense it from the manner he gave up
the T20 captaincy and then the ODI captaincy was taken away from him," he
said.

  He said that it will also be a challenge for the new captain to revive the
team's batting fortunes from the current "crisis".

  "It has become a challenging situation for India because you have a team
that has crumbled, the batting certainly," he said.

  Arun Dhumal, BCCI treasurer, said he wasn't worried.

  "I am sure with the kind of bench strength we will get over with this phase as well," Dhumal told AFP.

"It's just the change in leadership position that will happen, and when eventually somebody would take over they would take it from here and make sure the team gives its best on the field."

"Let us focus on Team India rather than thinking and bothering about what is being printed or spoken about," he added.BSS/AFP