I am not sure how big a figure Kohli is in Indian cricket hierarchy, but I'll take my chance here - he is NOWHERE NEAR what Sachin Tendulkar was in 1990s. And, that little man was sacked within few months of Captaincy - OK, not sacked, BCCI knows better than PCB how to respect their icons, so Tendulkar was allowed to step down with grace. I am telling the same here - for his own good, Kohli should step down to make it easy for everyone. If it wasn't Kohli, for any other player in that Indian team - I would have used the word "SACK".
Not sure either if Kohli is the face of world cricket. If so, I have to say the face is quite filthy - no disrespect to Kohli, but to be the face of a generation, you need something more than your playing ability - Kohli isn't Roger Federar or Leo Messi or Labron James in his sports.
Going back to the topic again, I am not sure about the respective status of Indian players in your list, but I saw Kapil Dev playing under Srikkant, then Azhar.... followed by Tendulkar playing under like half of the squad - Azhar, Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid, MS .... even Sehwag, and these guys were his contemporary, apart from MS (& Sehwag for few games). It wasn't embarrassing for Tendulkar though; will it be really that much insult thereafter for Kohli to play under Rohit Sharma?
Imarn/Akram example is a bit hilarious in this context for few reasons and that's not how great players they were - Wasim was cool 14 years younger than Imran and he was not even vice Captain when Imran retired. Biggest issue is, Imran had personality, presence and he was the standalone leader of the generation, while Wasim didn't even led his FC side by the time Imran retired. This guy Kohli is only the better batsman, but in any other scale, Sharma can teach him few tricks, including on field behavior. AND NO, MS Dhoni retired from Test cricket on his own and when Kohli took over from MS, he wasn't a bigger star than MS, by any stress of imagination - it's not even a bigger deal to replace Kohli with Rohit as Captain, than say MS replacing Dravid.
I know, you have some allergy with Imran, but let me tell you one more story - why that guy is respected all over the world, had his own unique image and why he is PM of PAK now. 38 years back Imran was the Captain, and the best player of the then world, Javed was his deputy - Imran got injured, left cricket for two years and in the mean time Javed was made Captain till end of 1985. Upon return, sometimes in early 1985 (before NZ tour), Gen. Ghulam Safdar Butt (Then PCB Chairman) asked Imran to take over the charge from Javed - which Imran declined. He allowed Miandad to complete his tenure, played under him for full year, and took charge of the team after Javed's assigned tenure was over.
I hope, BCCI does have enough sense, otherwise clock is running on a ticking bomb - and we don't know how many minutes left there.
Tendulkar was a completely different character to Kohli. He was a quiet figure with no personality. Apart from his genius with the bat, he had nothing going for him.
Tendulkar capitalized in an era where Indian cricket was not commercialized and he was the only superstar batsman in Indian cricket for over a decade when they were struggling to compete with Pakistan outside World Cups.
Had he played under Kohli, he would not be a god and he would barely get an endorsement deals with his height, voice, hair and physique.
Having Tendulkar play as captain under someone else is completely different to having Kohli play under someone else.
Kohli may not be everyone’s cup of tea and this is Kohli bashing season with different people releasing their frustration for different reasons as you rightly pointed out in another thread, but in spite of having a filthy face, it is beyond any debate that he is indeed the face of cricket today.
In terms of popularity, stature, star power, fan following etc. this guy is standing all alone today. No one is anywhere near him. He is definitely the Messi, Federe, LeBron type figure in his sport.
He is the Tendulkar of this generation when it comes to those aspects, but the difference between him and Tendulkar is that his personality is polar opposite. He cannot be a quiet figure on the field who is only concerned with his runs.
That is why it is simply unfair for any captain to be given the impossible task of captaining him. To captain Kohli you have to be a bigger star and a bigger personality, and there is no one in the world today let alone the Indian team.
He is not Tendulkar who could play under Ganguly, Dravid and Dhoni.
As far as Dhoni is concerned, Kohli was starting to overtake him by 2013-14 in terms of popularity, and he only replaced him in Test cricket when Dhoni retired.
Kohli replaced him in ODIs and T20Is in Jan 2017 when he was a far bigger star and player.
By 2015-16, half of Indian fans were begging Dhoni to leave.
Dravid was basically a superior version of Pujara of his time. A quiet gentleman who did not have a love-hate relationship with anyone, and would go about his business with or without captaincy.
Ganguly has enough sense not to replace the most successful Indian Test captain and the biggest star in the cricket world today with Rohit Sharma, who has contributed as much to India’s Test success in the last 5 years as Ganguly himself.
