Virat Kohli Dismisses Sourav Ganguly's Statement That He Had Requested Virat To Not Step Down As The T20 Captain

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has dismissed Sourav Ganguly’s statement wherein the Board President mentioned that he had personally requested Virat Kohli to not step down as the T20 captain. Notably, Indian cricket has been witnessing a lot of drama over the last couple of months as far as the captaincy roles are concerned.

Virat announced his decision of stepping down after the T20 World Cup 2021 before the tournament started. After that, the BCCI announced the squad for the South Africa tour and stated that Rohit Sharma will be the new white-ball captain, stripping Virat of the ODI captaincy as well. BCCI appointed Rohit as the vice-captain of the Test side too.

Virat Kohli Opens Up On Sourav Ganguly’s Statement

“It’s like I said… I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy. Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket. He has captained for a long period of time and these things happen. Because I have captained for a long period of time; therefore, I know. Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that’s why this decision. I don’t know what’s going to happen in future. But as I said, it’s a good team and it has some fantastic players and I hope they will turn it around,” Ganguly told News 18.

Virat Kohli attended a press conference before flying to South Africa and stated,  “When I approached BCCI about the T20 captaincy, it was received well by them and I was not told to not leave the T20 captaincy.  I was contacted 1.5 hours before selection committee meet. The chief selector discussed the Test team. Before ending the call the selectors told me I won’t be ODI captain and I was fine. There was no prior communication.”

India’s Tour Of South Africa To Commence On December 26

India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj