NEW DELHI: Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) chief Saurav Ganguly has asserted that Virat Kohli was removed as ODI captain as selectors did not want to have two different white-ball captains.
Opener Rohit Sharma took over as one-day captain on Wednesday, a month after succeeding Kohli as T20 skipper following their disappointing World Cup campaign.
“The board and selectors had asked Virat to rethink his decision to quit T20 captaincy. He had declined the suggestion at the time,” former captain Ganguly told Friday’s Times of India newspaper.
“We had requested Virat not to step down as T20I captain. There was no plan to change captaincy. But he stepped down as T20I captain and the selectors decided not to split limited-overs captaincy, opting for a complete separation,” said the BCCI president.
“The bottom line is that there can’t be two white-ball captains,” said the former India captain. Indian cricket is not used to separate captains for different formats. Such practice is widespread in England and Australia.
When asked whether two different captains would create conflict in the team, Ganguly replied in the negative. He pointed out that India had experienced split captaincy for two years earlier when Kohli captained the Test squad while Dhoni was in-charge of the team for white-ball cricket.
Ganguly spoke about communicating with Kohli about the ODI captaincy change. “I spoke to him. The chief selector spoke to him,” said the Board chief, wishing Rohit Sharma all the best and expecting that he would do a good job.
A couple of months ago when Kohli announced he was stepping down as T20 captain of the side, he stated his desire to captain the Men in Blue in ODI and Test cricket.
“Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI cricket,” he wrote on Instagram on September 16.
Kohli has enjoyed immense success as India’s white-ball captain. In 95 ODIs, he won in 65. In 45 T20Is, he led India to victory 27 times. Rohit has been Kohli’s longstanding deputy in limited-overs cricket, captaining the team in 10 ODIs and 19 T20Is before he was given the full-time charge.
