NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli has stated that he was informed of being replaced as India’s ODI captain one-and-a-half hours before the Test squad for the series against South Africa was announced on December 8. Chronicling his version of the events before and during his meeting with the selection committee, Kohli said that the Chetan Sharma-led panel had not previously communicated with him a decision to have him succeeded at the helm of the 50-over side by Rohit Sharma, even when he’d decided to step down as captain of the T20I team at the end of the World Cup in the UAE and Oman.
“I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on the eighth [December] for the Test series,” Kohli said at a press conference. “There was no prior communication to me at all since I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the 8th of December, where I got a call before the selection meeting.
The chief selector [Chetan Sharma] discussed with me the Test team, to which we both agreed. And before ending the call, I was told the five selectors have decided I will not be the ODI captain, to which I replied, ‘okay, fine’, and in the selection call afterwards, we chatted about it briefly. That’s what happened. There was no communication prior to that at all.”
Kohli had announced his decision to step down as T20I captain on September 16 in the lead up to the T20 World Cup citing workload issues.
He had, however, expressed a desire to continue leading the Test and ODI sides. In an interview with PTI on December 9, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said that the board had requested Kohli to reconsider giving up captaincy of the short format, something Kohli contradicted.
