These Sanju Samson, Rayudu incidents show why Rohit is a better leader than Kohli

Former international Robin Uthappa cited two incidents involving Sanju Samson and Ambati Rayudu to say why Rohit Sharma was a better leader than Virat Kohli.

In an interview with The Lallantop, Uthappa said Rohit was an 'inclusive' captain, while Kohli is a 'my way or the highway kind of captain'. Kohli stepped down from India's Test captaincy in 2022, while Rohit is the current skipper.

"You would have heard recently that Sanju Samson was supposed to play the World Cup final instead of Shivam Dube. The decision was left to Rohit Sharma to take the final call. Just ten minutes before toss, Sanju knew that he was not playing. After the toss, Rohit sat for 15 minutes with Sanju, explaining the decision. He was doing that on his time to prepare for batting," Uthappa said to make his point about Rohit's man-management skills.

To state his case about Kohli, Uthappa gave the example of retired cricketer Rayudu. "You can't take a player to the door and then shut it. He (Rayudu) was sent the World Cup kit and dress and everything and then the doors were shut on his face. That is a great injustice. These are things that impact the mindset of a player; forget a player, a human being, for a really long time," Uthappa said. Rayudu was dropped from India's squad for the 2019 ICC World Cup. He retired from all forms of cricket the same year.

Uthappa also listed Yuvraj Singh as a victim of Kohli's ruthless captaincy."If he didn't like anyone or if he didn't feel someone was good then they were cut," Uthappa said about Kohli's captaincy.

"There are two types of leaders. There are leaders who say 'this is the standard (indicates a higher level), meet it' (Kohli). And then there are leaders, who say 'I'll meet you where you are and elevate you to the standard I need you to be' (Rohit). For me, that is the basic difference (between Kohli and Rohit)."

Sanju recently said how Rohit spent time with him before the World Cup final that India won by seven runs against South Africa. "To do things right to that extent is what a good leader does, in my opinion. That is the difference between a decent leader and a great leader. From that point of view, Rohit is a very good leader," Uthappa said.