Bottom Line, There Can’t Be Two White-Ball Captains– Sourav Ganguly On Rohit Sharma Replacing Virat Kohli As ODI Captain
Bottom Line, There Can’t Be Two White-Ball Captains– Sourav Ganguly On Rohit Sharma Replacing Virat Kohli As ODI Captain.

Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif asserted that the rift between BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli forced the latter to step down from India’s Test captaincy role.

On Saturday, Kohli announced on his official Twitter handle to step down as India’s Test captain just a day after his side lost the Test series 1-2 against South Africa.

Kohli stepped down from the T20I captaincy role after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in November last year. Just ahead of the South Africa tour, he was replaced with Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain as the selectors didn’t want two white-ball captains for India.

Virat Kohli
Photo Credit: (BCCI)

Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly’s different angles over white-ball captaincy change

Ganguly had said that the selectors had requested Kohli to not give up the T20I captaincy, something that national chief selector Chetan Sharma also reiterated during the South Africa Test series.

However, Kohli had mentioned that his decision to step down from India’s T20I captaincy was welcomed by the board.

This is the battle of two stalwarts: Rashid Latif

Latif, who played 37 Tests and 166 ODI matches for Pakistan in his 11 years of international cricket, is of the opinion that the battle between Kohli and Ganguly has shaken Indian cricket completely.

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“The real reason why these things happen is that you have a tiff with the board. Irrespective of what Virat says that it’s his decision or what Sourav Ganguly tweets, this is battle of two stalwarts,” Latif said in a YouTube video on Caught Behind.

Rashid Latif
Rashid Latif. Image source- 24newshd.tv

“Some people are emotional. They know when and how to provoke Kohli. When he announced that he won’t captain India in T20Is after the World Cup, he was removed as ODI captain as well. You haven’t only unsettled Kohli; you’ve unsettled Indian cricket,” he explained.

Kohli took over the reins from MS Dhoni in Test cricket after the latter retired from the red-ball format at the end of 2014. Kohli stood as India’s captain in 68 Test matches and won 40 of them, the best record for any Indian skipper.

Under the leadership of Kohli, India won their first-ever Test series in Australia when they defeated them 2-1 in the 2018/19 Border Gavaskar series.

The team’s approach of playing overseas Test matches transfigured as they developed a winning and fighting attitude under Kohli’s tenure as the captain of the team.

Also Read: A Look At Indian The Playing XI In Virat Kohli’s First Test As A Captain: Where Are They Now?

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