The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Wednesday, named Rohit Sharma as India’s new ODI captain. The superstar opener took over the captaincy duties from Virat Kohli, who has had a phenomenal run as India’s captain in all the three formats of the game.
Virat Kohli, whohad a terrific average of 72.65 with over 5,000 runs in ODIs with 21 centuries as captain in 95 games, will go down in the history of this game as the most prolific record by a captain.
However, on Wednesday, the BCCI decided Rohit should take charge of the ODI and T20I teams “going forward”, without detailing the reasons. This hasn’t gone down well with several experts and fans, who are slamming BCCI for taking this bold step.
Among many, Indian politician Sanjay Jha also took to his Twitter and slammed the BCCI for removing Virat Kohli from the captaincy position without even telling him. Calling the BCCI a ‘political minefield’, he wrote:
“That Virat Kohli despite a stupendous batting and captaincy record was dumped from ODI as a captain without even being told is shameful. BCCI is a political minefield. But that it should happen with ex-skipper Sourav Ganguly in charge is terrible.”
Here, check out the Tweet:
That Virat Kohli despite a stupendous batting and captaincy record was dumped from ODI as a captain without even being told is shameful. BCCI is a political minefield. But that it should happen with ex-skipper Sourav Ganguly in charge is terrible. @imVkohli @SGanguly99
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) December 9, 2021
Meanwhile, it has been reported that BCCI selectors took the final call on naming Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain. While Kohli was adament on continuing to lead the team in Test and ODIs. However, the selectors found it best to give the charge to the dashing opener as they wanted an absolute clarity between red-ball and white-ball cricket.
“The BCCI wanted absolute clarity between red-ball and white-ball cricket. The BCCI wanted a complete (leadership) separation between the longest format and shorter formats to avoid any confusion. In the end, it was left to the selectors to take a call. They decided to appoint Rohit as new ODI captain,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
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