Virat Kohli refutes Ganguly's claim on being asked to stay on as India's T20I captain
Virat Kohli has said he was not communicated prior to his removal from the captaincy role of the Indian cricket team from the ODI format.
- SportFit
- 2 min read
Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli expressed his thoughts on being removed from the ODI captaincy of the Men in Blue and has also refuted the claims made about being contacted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly before the decision was taken. The Indian cricket team is currently in turmoil ever since the split captaincy episode came to light, following the announcement by the BCCI to remove Virat Kohli from the captaincy role of the Indian ODI side and hand it over to Rohit Sharma. Kohli will now lead Team India only in Test matches, and BCCI’s announcement yesterday about Rohit Sharma being unavailable for the upcoming Test series against South Africa, further added to the speculations about a possible rift between the top-two cricketers of India, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma.
Virat Kohli refutes Ganguly's claim
BCCI was earlier heavily criticized by the cricket fans for its decision to remove Kohli from the ODI captaincy as Kohli had a win percentage of more than 70% while leading the Men in Blue in ODI matches. Kohli further shed his thoughts on the communication he had with the BCCI before relinquishing the T20 captaincy.
"I was never told that I should not leave T20I cricket captaincy. I told the BCCI before giving up T20I captaincy. I told them my point of view. The BCCI received it very well. There was no offence. It was received well, saying it’s a progresive step. I told them I will continue as ODI captain and Test captain. I told them at that point clearly that if the office bearers or the selectors don’t want me to handle either of the responsibility, I am fine with it. I said this clearly when I approached the BCCI to discuss my T20I captaincy,' Kohli revealed.
What did Sourav Ganguly say about Kohli's removal?
Ganguly earlier spoke about removing Kohli from the captaincy role in the ODI format, and speaking to ANI the former India skipper said, “It's a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats".