- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE change of leadership in the national cricket team’s one-day international (ODI) format has sparked outrage across India.
Virat Kohli, who had been captaining the side since 2017, has recently been replaced with Rohit Sharma – something which has not gone down well with the former’s countless fans. The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has been accused of playing games which saw the governing body’s president Sourav Ganguly clearing the air saying the national selectors did not want two different captains for the white-ball formats.
ALSO READ: After T20s, Virat Kohli loses one-day captaincy to Rohit Sharma
Kohli, it may be mentioned, stepped down from the captaincy in the T20 international format after India’s unsuccessful campaign at the World Cup in the shortest format in the UAE last month and was succeeded by Sharma.
Rohit Sharma replaces Ajinkya Rahane as Test vice captain in SA series
The ace batter continues to be India’s captain in the red-ball format or Test cricket and is the most successful skipper the country has produced in the longest format.
The Indian cricket board, which is not known for explaining even routine decisions, did not mention Kohli by name while conveying the change in leadership and that left the batter’s supporters fuming even more.
Ganguly, a former India captain himself, told the Times of India daily, “The board and selectors had asked Virat to rethink his decision to quit T20 captaincy. He had declined the suggestion at the time.”
“The selectors were uncomfortable with the idea of having two captains for white-ball cricket,” he added.
India failed to win a single ICC crown under Kohli despite playing well in a number of such tournaments. They made the finals of the Champions Trophy in 2017 and the World Test Championship in England earlier this year but lost the title clash against Pakistan and New Zealand, respectively. They also made the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup, also held in England, as the most successful team but lost the last-four match against the Kiwis.
With the next 50-over World Cup at home less than two years away, Kohli was reportedly keen to lead India in the marquee tournament but he will now have to play under Sharma who is senior to him by more than a year-and-a-half.
Sharma, however, has been a more successful captain in terms of winning trophies. While he has five Indian Premier League crowns under his belt, he also led India to lift the Asia Cup title in the UAE in 2018 in the absence of Kohli.
“He (Kohli) has done well even as an ODI captain. But it was not going to be easy to have two captains in white-ball cricket with two World Cups in two years,” Ganguly said.
“The selectors felt the team needed one vision and varied styles of captaincy could disrupt the planning,” he added.
Ganguly said he and Chetan Sharma, India’s chief selector, spoke to Kohli before making the change.
“We explained the vision to him. He understood the situation and it was only then that Rohit was named the captain of the ODI team,” the BCCI chief added.
Kohli captained India in 95 one-day matches, the fourth most after Mahendra Singh Dhoni (200), Mohammed Azharuddin (174) and Ganguly (146) but has been the most successful in terms of winning percentage (70.43).
Sharma has led India in 10 games and won eight.
Meanwhile, AFP cited India’s local media as saying that the BCCI’s act of removing Kohli as the one-day captain was inevitable when he refused to step down after a poor show in the T20 World Cup.
It was reported that Kohli, 33, wanted to hold on to captaincy in the 50-over format but eventually had to lose it to Sharma, who served as his deputy in the short formats and will be the India vice captain in Tests in the upcoming away series against South Africa.
“Virat Kohli refuses to step down, BCCI cracks whip,” the Press Trust of India said in a headline. The board had waited for Kohli to voluntarily give up the captaincy but when he did not, losing the position was “simply fait accompli,” it added.
The Indian Express reported that Kohli was not informed about his “sacking” beforehand.
“However great a player Virat Kohli is… it is inevitable he will feel a sense of loss,” tweeted noted Indian cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle.
Sports writer Ayaz Memon said that Sharma “thoroughly deserved” his promotion.
He also warned that head coach Rahul Dravid, who is just a series old, would need to be “buffer, bridge and big brother” between Kohli and Sharma because “dressing-room dynamics change” during a transition.
Reports of friction between Kohli and Sharma splitting the Indian dressing room have made the headlines earlier though all cricketing quarters have rubbished the speculation.
Indian sports author and historian Boria Majumdar praised Sharma’s elevation but said that it was important to take Kohli “into confidence” and ensure there was “clear communication”. He said the same was needed for the sake of Indian cricket.
However, the fans were not convinced with Kohli’s ‘unceremonious’ exit and lamented how things developed.
“A captain who maintained a win percentage of 68 percent in ODIs is surely not supposed to be bidden farewell via a press release with two sentences without even mentioning his name, no,” said one.
Kohli’s own form has also been less than inspiring for the past many months and that is also a reason why he has come under scrutiny.
