When I made Rohit Sharma the captain, everyone criticized me: Sourav Ganguly fires shots at Virat Kohli's fans

With Rohit Sharma guiding Team India to the T20 World Cup win last month, former captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has hit back at the critics.

The legendary cricketer was the BCCI president when Virat Kohli was sacked as the limited-overs captain in 2021. A few weeks later, Kohli had stepped down as the Test captain as well. Sourav Ganguly had faced severe criticism at that time with many holding him responsible for Kohli losing the captaincy. Rohit had replaced Kohli as the captain across formats at that time.

Sourav Ganguly hits back:

With Rohit Sharma doing well as captain in all the formats, Sourav Ganguly has used the opportunity to hit back at his critics who had criticized him for the captaincy change three years ago. The former India skipper stated that while the Indian cricketing fraternity has been busy celebrating the T20 World Cup 2024 win under Rohit, no one remembers that he was the one who made Rohit the captain in the first place.

"When I handed Rohit Sharma the captaincy of the Indian team, everyone criticised me. Now that India has won the T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, everyone has stopped abusing me for it. In fact, I think everyone has forgotten that it was I who appointed him as the captain of the Indian team," Sourav Ganguly told Ajkaal.

Rohit has enjoyed good success as a captain across formats in the last couple of years. Last year, he led India to the final of the World Test Championship as well as the ODI World Cup. It was India's first appearance in the ODI World Cup final since 2011. Team India also won the Asia Cup last year.

Last month, Rohit led the team to glory in the T20 World Cup as well. It ended India's 11-year wait for an ICC trophy. Meanwhile, India will have a new T20I captain soon as Rohit retired from the shortest format of the game after the T20 World Cup win.