Virat Kohli ODI captaincy: Why did BCCI give him '48-hour ultimatum'?

The year 2021 has not been the best period for Virat Kohli who has struggled both on and off the field. While he has failed to score enough runs with the bat, the maverick batsman stepped down from his captaincy position both for RCB and Team India T20 team. However, on Wednesday Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stunned everyone by removing Virat Kohli from the position of ODI skipper handing the baton to Rohit Sharma.

Why was Virat Kohli removed from ODI captaincy? 

Questions were being raised about Virat Kohli ODI captaincy after India failed to win major honours under his leadership. Under Virat Kohli's captaincy, the closest India came to winning an ICC tournament was in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, where the team lost to Pakistan in the final. The form of Virat Kohli was also in question after he had barely been able to make big runs. 

As per a PTI report, before the ODI team was named for the South Africa tour, Virat Kohli was asked by the BCCI to step down as India's ODI skipper in 48 hours, however, the 33-year-old did not resign. The board did not wait any longer and decided to appoint Rohit Sharma as the skipper of the ODI team.

Virat Kohli after relinquishing his T20I captaincy had spoken about his intention to lead the Indian team in both ODIs and Tests. While the Delhi cricketer was looking forward to leading the team in the 2023 ODI World Cup the board seems to have had other ideas as they looked towards bringing in fresh ideas.

Rohit Sharma named vice-captain of the Test team 

The BCCI on Wednesday announced the 18-member squad for the Test along with three standby players. Ajinkya Rahane was sacked as the vice-captain, with Rohit Sharma taking his place. Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, and Rahul Chahar were not available for selection because they have been undergoing rehabilitation to recover from their injuries. 

Squad: Virat Kohli (Capt),Rohit Sharma(vc), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(wk), Wriddhiman Saha(wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.

Standby Players- Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla