Had requested Virat Kohli to not step down: Sourav Ganguly

New Delhi, December 9

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly today said that once Virat Kohli refused to continue as India’s T20 captain, the selectors made up their mind to hand the ODI reins to Rohit Sharma as the national team couldn’t afford “too much leadership” with two separate captains in the limited-overs format.

The BCCI on Wednesday named Rohit the captain of the ODI side going into the 2023 ODI World Cup and Ganguly opened up on the issue, asserting that Kohli was spoken to and he duly accepted the decision.

“We had requested Virat not to step down as T20I captain but he didn’t want to continue as captain. So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white-ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership,” the BCCI president and former India captain said.

Kohli had stepped down after India’s disastrous T20 World Cup campaign in October-November.

Ganguly said the selectors felt that multiple leaders in the white-ball format would lead to confusion and that’s why the Chetan Sharma-led committee suggested that it would be better to have one leader. “I don’t know (about confusion) but that’s what they (selectors) felt. That’s how this conclusion was arrived at — that let Rohit captain in the white-ball and let Virat be the red-ball skipper,” Ganguly added.

So how does he see Rohit performing as the ODI skipper? Ganguly said he wouldn’t like to make any predictions but is confident of his abilities.

“It’s very difficult to predict. I wish him all the best and hope he does a good job,” he said. — PTI