It was just a line at the end of the press release announcing the Test squad for the South Africa tour. Poor performance of BCCI on Wednesday Virat KohliDismissed as India’s ODI captain and handed over charge of the overall white ball Rohit Sharma, the Test opener will now lead both the T20I and ODI sides.
A senior BCCI official said the decision was in the works for some time but the final decision was taken by the selectors. “BCCI wanted complete clarity between red-ball and white-ball cricket. The BCCI wanted a complete (leadership) separation between the longest format and the shorter formats to avoid any confusion. Ultimately, the decision was left to the selectors. They decided to appoint Rohit as the new ODI captain,” told a BCCI insider Indian Express,
Unlike the T20I captaincy change, where Kohli made the announcement citing his workload, the ODI leadership switch is seen as a BCCI decision. Three months ago, relinquishing the T20I captaincy, Kohli had expressed his desire to lead India in Tests and ODIs later. “Understanding the workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload playing all 3 formats in the last 8-9 years and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel that I want to be a part of the Indian team. needed. One needs to position oneself to be fully prepared to lead. team in Test and ODI cricket,” he wrote on Instagram on 16 September.
However, after India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup, it was clear that the BCCI was not on the same page as Kohli. They will make it official on the first given opportunity. Announcement of the Test team in which Kohli was the captain and Sharma was the vice-captain: “The All India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the captain of the ODI and T20I teams.”
The Indian Express has also learned that Kohli was not informed about the decision in advance. Again, this was a departure from the past. At the time he relinquished the T20I captaincy, Kohli had referred to his conversation with former India head coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI President. Sourav Ganguly and Board Secretary Jay Shah before taking the decision. It was also his choice to leave the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
The first indications about Kohli’s volatile position on the hot seat came when the BCCI brought in MS Dhoni as a team mentor for the October-November T20 World Cup. Kohli’s inability to win ICC events was a matter of concern for the Indian board. Insiders say that India’s performance in the T20 World Cup was going to decide the future of Kohli’s captaincy. However, in a move that surprised even the BCCI officials, Kohli made public his decision to step down from the T20I captaincy even before the tournament began. His desire to continue as Test and ODI captain troubled the officials. With India hosting the 50-over World Cup in 2023, Kohli did not want to give up the ODI captaincy. In a way, Kohli was abusing the BCCI – if you want, remove me from the post of ODI captain. BCCI did the same on Wednesday.
The All India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the captain of the ODI and T20I teams.#teamindia , @Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/hcg92sPtCa
—BCCI (@BCCI) December 8, 2021
go back in time
The decision of captaincy in Indian cricket is never left to the players. Kapil Dev was sacked within a year of winning the 1983 World Cup. Sunil Gavaskar stepped down after winning the World Championship of Cricket in 1985. Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy was snatched away in acrimonious circumstances. Even Dhoni, with three world titles in his bag, was tapped on the shoulder by the then selection committee when it was felt that the white-ball captaincy needed a change. Kohli probably failed to read the room.
In another interesting development, the selectors promoted Sharma to the Test vice-captaincy in his place. Ajinkya Rahane, however the latter was picked for the three-match series in South Africa. Sharma’s growing stature in the team could give scope to read between the lines, which began with skipper Kohli stepping out.
Kohli has been one of India’s most successful white-ball captains. In 95 ODIs, he won 65, giving him a win percentage of over 70. In 45 T20Is, he led India to victory 27 times. Sharma has been Kohli’s long-time deputy in limited-overs cricket, captaining the team in 10 ODIs and 19 T20Is before being given full-time charge during the recent three-match home series against New Zealand. He started with a clean sweep. The five IPL titles under Mumbai Indians made him a shoo-in as Kohli’s successor.
Kohli took over the limited overs captaincy from Dhoni in 2017 and under his leadership India have won limited overs series in every country. But he failed to win the ICC event. The closest India came to adding global silverware came in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, where the team lost to Pakistan in the final. This year’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates was probably nadir; India lost their first two group league games against Pakistan and New Zealand and were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage.
The BCCI publicly took a compassionate view on the team’s T20 World Cup defeat, deeming it a “bad tournament”. But it is learned that the board wanted a new direction in limited overs cricket under the leadership of a new captain. There is less than 12 months left for the next T20 World Cup in Australia, while India will host the 50-over World Cup a year later. The BCCI and the selection committee apparently wanted to give time to Sharma to make the squad for the two upcoming ICC events.
Even the fall in form didn’t help Kohli. In the last two years, he has scored 560 runs in 12 ODIs without a century. He averaged 46.66 during this period, which is much lower than his career average of 59.07. In 20 T20Is during the same period, he has scored 594 runs at 49.50, while in 13 Tests in the last two years he has scored 599 runs at an average of 26.04. Shastri, however, had defended his captain’s lean patch citing bubble fatigue. “In the last 24 months, they (players) have been at home for 25 days. I don’t care who you are, if your name is Bradman and you are in a bubble, your average will come down because you are human,” he had said.
Indian cricket has barely dealt with a divided captaincy and two power centers in the team. It will be interesting to see what the new head coach is like. Rahul Dravid Let’s handle it further. Under Kohli, India have scaled unprecedented heights in Tests and are currently the most in-form captain. But even there Sharma’s shadow may be infallible.