Haven't Talked To Virat Kohli As His Phone Is Switched-Off, Says Rajkumar Sharma

Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has said that he hasn’t spoken to Virat Kohli as the latter’s phone is switched off. Kohli was removed from the ODI captaincy duties a few days and was replaced by Rohit Sharma.

The 33-year-old had already quit the T20I captaincy ahead of the T20 World Cup in the UAE. He also quit the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL ahead of the second-leg in the UAE.

In his last IPL as a skipper, RCB finished third in the points table and lost the eliminator to Kolkata Knight Riders. In his last stint as India’s skipper in the T20Is, the Men In Blue couldn’t qualify for the semifinal as they lost to Pakistan and New Zealand in their first two games of the Super 12 round.

Rohit Sharma took over the captaincy duties in the shortest format in the three-match series against New Zealand at home. India won the series 3-0. Kohli was rested for the series and the first Test of the two-match against the same opponents. He played the second game and the team won the game and the series by 1-0. The first game ended in a draw as India couldn’t take the sole wicket of the Kiwis.

Rajkumar Sharma has his say on Virat Kohli’s captaincy fiasco

“I haven’t talked to him (Virat Kohli) yet. His phone is switched off for some reason. But as far as my opinion is concerned, he had specifically stepped down from T20 captaincy and the selectors should’ve straightaway asked him to step down from both the white-ball formats, or not step down at all,” Sharma said, while speaking on the Khelneeti podcast.

Sharma added that he has read the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s statement and reacted to it saying that the statement was a surprise to him. Ganguly had said that he asked Virat Kohli not to step down from the T20I captaincy but the selectors were forced to remove Kohli as the ODI captain as they didn’t wanted to split the white-ball captaincy.

“I read Sourav Ganguly’s comments recently that they had asked Kohli to not step down from T20I captaincy (before the World Cup). I don’t recall anything like that. This statement came as a surprise to me. There are different statements circulating around,” Sharma added.

The 56-year-old further added that the selectors didn’t have any clarifications nor any transparency as Virat has been a successful captain

“The selection committee doesn’t provide a reason behind the decision. We don’t know what the management or the BCCI or the selectors want. There’s no clarification, no transparency at all.

“It’s a pity how this has happened. He has been such a successful one-day captain,” said the 56-year-old.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is still leading the Test team. He will lead the team in the three-match Test series against South Africa on their home soil. This will be India’s opportunity to win their first-ever Test series in the rainbow nation. However, the ODI squad for the three-match series against hosts.