BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla Comments On The Split Captaincy Issue Between Virat Kohli And Rohit Sharma

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice-President Rajiv Shukla has stated that the rumors on the split captaincy in Indian cricket are baseless. A few reports had emerged which claimed that Virat Kohli might step down from the captaincy role in white-ball formats after the upcoming T20 World Cup.

His deputy, Rohit Sharma, was believed to be the next in line. Kohli was reportedly aiming to focus on his batting by giving up the captaincy, but all the speculations have been put to rest by Rajiv Shukla. He asserted that there have been no such talks and Kohli will continue to lead the side.

“There is nothing to this rumor. Also, let’s focus on the T20 World Cup rather than playing soothsayer and predicting the future. There have been no talks on split captaincy,” Shukla was quoted as saying to ANI.

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had also quashed these rumors on Monday. He claimed that the ongoing chatter around Kohli’s captaincy is ‘rubbish’.

“This is all rubbish. Nothing as such is going to happen. This is all media creation. BCCI has not met or discussed anything on this issue,” he revealed.

The upcoming T20 World Cup will be Virat Kohli’s 3rd ICC event in the limited-overs format. Under his captaincy, India reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 where they were beaten comprehensively by Pakistan.

They went to the semifinals of the 2019 ODI World Cup, eventually losing to New Zealand by a close margin. The Indian skipper will have his first opportunity to bring glory in the shortest format when they begin their T20 World Cup campaign on October 24.

The squad for the same was announced which included a few surprises. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who last played a T20I in 2017, was announced in the 15-member squad. Yuzvendra Chahal and Shikhar Dhawan were left out, while Rahul Chahar will get to play his first major event for the national side.

Former skipper MS Dhoni was brought into the side as a mentor. This will be his first association with the Indian team after announcing retirement last August.

India squad for T20 World Cup

Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.

Reserves: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.

Also Read – It Is A Show-Stopper – Ramiz Raja On Pakistan Facing India In The T20 World Cup 2021