Why India need both Virat Kohli AND Anil Kumble

What Kumble has brought to the team:

The appointment of Kumble finally gave Indian cricket something they had always craved, an insider who was familiar with the workings of a team and who could also bridge the so-called ‘cultural gap’ between the players and the coach. Further, while there may have been a few doubts over Kumble’s credentials prior to his appointment, particularly about his lack of credible coaching experience, Kumble has hardly set a foot wrong since taking charge. India have always been one of the better cricketing nations, but what Kumble's coaching tenure has brought to the side so far, is a kind of ruthlessness to their performances. Never before has an Indian side so comprehensively outclassed their opponents, as they have done in the last one year. India’s home series wins against England, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Australia have all been commendable, but a closer look at the results, reveal the contributions of both Kohli and Kumble to the cause.

Mishra’s success against New Zealand is a testament to Kumble’s man-management skills as well as his coaching methods. More importantly, such an incident makes recent reports that certain members of the Indian team are having problems with Kumble’s coaching methods hard to believe.

Thanks to Kohli, the Indian players now believe that they can win a match from any given situation even in the absence of Kohli. And this was more evident than ever before when Ajinkya Rahane led India to a 2-1 series victory over Australia in the final Test in Dharamsala in the absence of their best batsman in Kohli. But when Kohli has been on the field, he has led the team from the front and by example, scoring heaps of runs with more than a handful of double-hundreds, barring the series against Australia, when Kohli had an uncharacteristically below-par series.

Especially, given where the Indian team finds themselves at this point of time, Kumble and Kohli not seeing eye-to-eye will be the worst thing that could happen. Not only are India about to begin their Champions Trophy defense against Pakistan on Sunday, India also have important away series’ coming up after this, with visits to South Africa and Australia to come before the year goes out, Kohli and Kumble have a chance to write their names in the history books of Indian cricket and World Cricket. And if we appoint a new coach at this time, not only will it be a step backward, it will also undo all the good work that the duo have done so far.