The war is on – from friends to enemies! Former Indian captains Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly, both of them are hailed as two of the greatest cricketers (and captains) to have ever played for the Indian cricket team, however, they do not have a great connection, especially after the whole Kohli captaincy saga. Both of them once shared a great bond with each other but now they don’t even look eye-to-eye with each other.
But what went wrong?
It was in 2021, that then India’s all-format skipper Virat Kohli stepped down from the T20I captaincy role. Following his decision to step down from T20 captaincy, the then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly also sacked him from ODI and Test captaincy.
The BCCI president made that decision as he didn’t want split captaincy in the Indian team. Keeping in mind the same split thing theory Ganguly opted for Rohit Sharma as the all-format skipper replacing Kohli.
Different kinds of statements came from Ganguly, then BCCI President, and Kohli around the captaincy drama which added more fuel to the fire. Kohli said that he was contacted about his captaincy removal via a phone call. He said “I was contacted one and a half hours before the selection meeting on the 8th for the Test series and there was no prior communication to me at all,”
Ganguly and Kohli have never been caught on camera face to face after Kohli was sacked as the captain of the Indian team
Virat Kohli & Sourav Ganguly’s unfriendly interaction in IPL 2023
Ever since the aforementioned controversy, Ganguly and Kohli faced each other for the first time when Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Delhi Capitals in the ongoing 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League.
Several videos and pictures of Kohli and Ganguly from the game have been going viral on the internet. In one of the videos, Kohli can be seen giving a death stare to Ganguly after taking a catch.
In another video, Kohli can be seen sitting outside the dugout, with his helmet and pads on, giving a cold stare to Ganguly, while the latter ignored him.
Kohli scored a match-winning fifty which helped RCB win their second game of the season, following which, he was seen celebrating the feat in an aggressive way. He gestured a fist bump on his chest by looking at the DC dugout where Ganguly was sitting.
Later, after the match, Kohli and Ganguly ignored each other and didn’t shake hands.
https://twitter.com/abhinav200611/status/1647773276029227012?s=20
Kohli and Ganguly unfollowed each other on social media
Infact, after the game between RCB and DC at the Chinnaswamy Stadium Indian team’s former coach and captain, didn’t shake hands.
After the game between CSK and RCB, Virat Kohli unfollowed Ganguly on his Instagram account, sending a clear message that there is something wrong between the two. Ganguly hit back by unfollowing Virat Kohli on Monday.
