'There was no communication...' - Virat Kohli opens up on losing ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma

[MenInG]

In a period of 5 months, India's leadership structure underwent a complete overhaul, with Virat Kohli no longer the captain in any of the three formats. In T20Is and Tests, Kohli decided to step down himself while the ODI captaincy decision had come from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

More so than the white-ball leadership scenario, it was Virat Kohli's decision to leave Test captaincy that stunned the Indian cricketing fraternity. There are different schools of thought on the scenario, with there being those too who believe the recent affairs between the BCCI and Kohli played a role in the latter's decision to quit Test captaincy.

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who continues to keep a close watch on Indian cricket as a pundit, believes that there seems to be some rift in the Indian team at present. In fact, the Rawalpindi Express also feels Virat's decision to quit Test captaincy was just his personal choice.

"I see a rift in this team. Important to see how the team will be handled. I don't think Kohli quit because he wanted to, such a situation was created that he had to leave captaincy. There are a lot of reasons behind Kohli's decision to leave Test captaincy, that I cannot say because of confidentiality," Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.

Reflecting on India's recently-concluded tour of South Africa, Akhtar felt that the Indian team's performance was 'humiliating'. Going ahead, the former Pakistan paceman all the parties, including the BCCI, the team management, and the captain, to come together for the common good of the team.

"The recent performances have left India humiliating. I don't think the Indian team should be losing to such a South Africa team, that too in a demoralizing manner.

"Moving ahead from this point, the BCCI, Management, captain and the rest of the players will have to regroup. The issues of unrest will have to be put to an end by the management. I didn't see a combined effort by the team in South Africa," he said.

Virat Kohli himself hasn't been in the best of form with the bat. Many felt that the decision to leave captaincy would help him play more freely, but that hasn't happened so far. Akhtar is hopeful of Virat returning to his full potential and continuing the record-breaking run that he has been on for the most part of his career.

"I wish for Kohli to play his normal cricket now. No hundred in the last 2 years, score one now, keep breaking records. There is no need for him to prove anything but tough times are coming ahead.

"India will have to strengthen their middle-order because they crumble after the top order is gone. A lot of question marks for Indian cricket at the moment," Akhtar further said, speaking of Team India's middle-order situation.

India's next assignment is the ODI series against West Indies which will begin on February 06. The 3-match ODI assignment will be followed by a 3-match T20I series.

https://www.timesnownews.com/sports...eres-rift-in-indian-team-shoaib-akhtar/852740

 

[MenInG]

New Delhi: Former India World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev urged Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly to resolve any issues that they might possibly have and suggested a simple solution to end the conflict, adding that the country is above everything else. Kapil said that both the former captains should have sorted out the issue between them and all that was required was to pick up the phone and talk to each other.

“They (Virat Kohli and BCCI) should have sorted out the issues between them. Pick up the phone, talk to each other, put the country and team before yourself. In the beginning, I also got everything I wanted. But sometimes, you may not get it,” Kapil Dev was quoted as saying by The Week magazine.

The former India captain further went on to add that sometimes at the beginning of any tenure, you might get everything else but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will continue to be like that and it shouldn’t end in giving up the captaincy if that is the reason he resigned from the top job.

“That should not mean that you leave the captaincy. If he has left it because of that, then I do not know what to say. He is a fabulous player; [I want to] watch him play so much more and score runs, especially in Test cricket,” he added.

Earlier, Kohli in a press conference before leaving for the tour of South Africa had contradicted BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and chairman of the selection committee Chetan Sharma, who went on record to state that they had requested the then India captain not to resign as the T20 captain before the T20 World Cup.

https://www.cricketcountry.com/news...-else-urges-them-to-resolve-the-issue-1012194

 

[MenInG]

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not only Indian cricket's batting superstars, but also its two biggest alpha males. Among the current crop of players, Kohli and Rohit's records stand out and both have been instrumental in Indian cricket's success in the last decade. While Kohli, from a promising youngster, emerged into India's greatest batter of the current generation, Rohit's career took a massive turn for the good when he was made opener in 2013. The rest, as they say, is history as Rohit and Kohli went on to dominate world cricket.

Rohit and Kohli's popularity soars through the roof, so much so that fans on social media are so loyal to one that at times they turn their back on the other. The Kohli vs Rohit debate is nothing new but one that keeps emerging every now and then. In the past, there have been reports of the two star cricketers not seeing eye to eye but all that seems to be a thing of the past now. But still, sections of people on social media bring up the topic to fuel the Rohit vs Kohli debate.

Sharing his views on the matter, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal pointed out that this whole idea of who is the better batter between the two has only stemmed from the public and through social media, and that the board does not differentiate between Kohli and Rohit, or anyone else for that matter.

"We never think about it. It is the passion of fans that drives them and this debate. When you are attached to an emotion, then you tend to say all that. And social media is a platform where you can talk about anything. They speak their heart out because there are no restrictions. That is why people think it persists. We saw the same with Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, or later between Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. On social media, matters amplify to an extent that people believe all this is true," Dhumal told veteran journalist Vimal Kumar on his YouTube channel.

Kohli and Rohit of course have legendary individual records, but batting together, the two have formed formidable partnerships. In terms of highest partnership runs in a career, Kohli and Rohit are eight, and only the third pair behind Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly and Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan.

Kohli and Rohit have batted together in 82 innings and scored 4914 runs at an average of 63.81. This includes 15 fifty and 18 century partnerships with a best of 246 – which is one of the five 200-run partnerships Kohli and Rohit have put together.

HindustanTimes

 

[Ab Fan]

Rohit is nowhere close to Kohli as far as batting achievements are concerned.

Rohit is a good test batsman while Kohli is a great test batsman and his legacy is enriched further by his captaincy record.

Rohit is a great LOI batsman but Kohli is one of the best LOI batsman to have played the game.

 

[MenInG]

The Virat Kohli-Sourav Ganguly episode that shook world cricket more than a year back is secret to none. The entire row had started after Kohli was removed from captaincy in ODI cricket. Kohli had stepped down from the T20I leadership position in 2021 before there was a war of words targetted at each other via media interactions and eventually ended with the former relinquishing his captaincy role in Tests as well in January 2022. It has been over 14 months now, and two have not been on good terms since then, as evident from not one but two incidents during the IPL 2023 match between RCB and Delhi Capitals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

Both incidents went viral on social media after the match where Kohli was named the Player of the Match for his record half-century knock. Well, it seemed only fitting given the scenario and the videos that went viral, to speak in terms of ardent fans of the former India skipper, it was “karma”.

The first video was from the 18th over of the Delhi's chase of 175. In the third ball of that over, Kohli had taken a wonderful catch at long-on to dismiss Aman Hakim Khan for 18 off 10. The equation was reduced to 47 required off the final 15 balls with one wicket in hand.

As Kohli was walking his way back to his fielding position near the boundary rope, he gave a death stare to Ganguly, director of cricket at Delhi Capitals, who was seated at the dugout.

Delhi stretched the match to the last over, but eventually were restricted to 151 for nine, hence losing by 23 runs. It was Delhi's fifth consecutive defeat in the ongoing IPL 2023, making them the only team yet to open their account in the tournament.

After the match, the players queued up to shake hands with DC players and management congratulating their RCB counterparts on the win. However, in a video that also went viral on social media, Ganguly spotted jumping the queue to avoid having a handshake with Kohli, who had by then been spotted chatting with Ricky Ponting, head coach of Delhi, who was standing ahead of the former BCCI president.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cric...rector-ignores-handshake-101681567424271.html

 

[MenInG]

The Virat Kohli-Sourav Ganguly episode that shook world cricket more than a year back is secret to none. The entire row had started after Kohli was removed from captaincy in ODI cricket. Kohli had stepped down from the T20I leadership position in 2021 before there was a war of words targetted at each other via media interactions and eventually ended with the former relinquishing his captaincy role in Tests as well in January 2022. It has been over 14 months now, and two have not been on good terms since then, as evident from not one but two incidents during the IPL 2023 match between RCB and Delhi Capitals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

Both incidents went viral on social media after the match where Kohli was named the Player of the Match for his record half-century knock. Well, it seemed only fitting given the scenario and the videos that went viral, to speak in terms of ardent fans of the former India skipper, it was “karma”.

The first video was from the 18th over of the Delhi's chase of 175. In the third ball of that over, Kohli had taken a wonderful catch at long-on to dismiss Aman Hakim Khan for 18 off 10. The equation was reduced to 47 required off the final 15 balls with one wicket in hand.

As Kohli was walking his way back to his fielding position near the boundary rope, he gave a death stare to Ganguly, director of cricket at Delhi Capitals, who was seated at the dugout.

Delhi stretched the match to the last over, but eventually were restricted to 151 for nine, hence losing by 23 runs. It was Delhi's fifth consecutive defeat in the ongoing IPL 2023, making them the only team yet to open their account in the tournament.

After the match, the players queued up to shake hands with DC players and management congratulating their RCB counterparts on the win. However, in a video that also went viral on social media, Ganguly spotted jumping the queue to avoid having a handshake with Kohli, who had by then been spotted chatting with Ricky Ponting, head coach of Delhi, who was standing ahead of the former BCCI president.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cric...rector-ignores-handshake-101681567424271.html

And to make matters worst...

Virat Kohli has unfollowed Ganguly on Instagram as per a media report.

 

[MenInG]

It doesn't all seem to be well between two of Team India's former skippers -- Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly. Since Kohli's exit as India's skipper from all three formats of the game, a lot has been said about the relationship between Ganguly and him. As Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Delhi Capitals in an Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match, Kohli and Ganguly seemed to have avoided shaking each others' hands, with the video of the incident going viral.

As the chatter over the relationship between the two continues on social media, another video featuring Kohli and Ganguly has emerged on social media.

The manner in which the captaincy change in all three formats of the Indian team took place, with Kohli stepping aside for Rohit Sharma, has raised many questions. Both Virat and Ganguly have their own versions of what all transpired behind the curtains.

Not long after Kohli put his captaincy days behind him, Ganguly's exit as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was also confirmed. However, when the two came face-to-face against each other in the Delhi vs Bengaluru IPL match, a lot was there to observe for the fans.

It has also been said on social media that soon after the match between RCB and DC, Kohli stopped following Ganguly on Instagram. The latter, however, is still following the former on the photo and video blogging platform.

Speaking of Kohli's captaincy exit episode, Ganguly had said: "It's a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper, but, obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats."

Kohli, on the other hand, revealed a different storyline when he was asked about the matter.

"There was no prior communication with me at all since I announced the T20 captaincy decision until the 8th of December. I was told that the selectors had decided that I won't be ODI captain to which I replied, 'Okay, fine'. There was no prior communication. That is what happened," he had said during the South Africa tour.

Since that captaincy sacking episode, there are many who believe that the relationship between Kohli and Ganguly has been strained.

NDTV

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[Rajdeep]

1) Kohli himself asked to relieve him from T20 captaincy even though Ganguly asked him to stay (confirmed by Chetan Sharma).

2) Kohli then lied in PC that there was noone asked him to stay as T20 captain.

3) BCCI correctly decided that they wont have 2 seperate white ball skippers, so removed him from ODIs as well and gave entire white ball captaincy to Rohit Sharma (5 time IPL/ 1Asia cup winning captain).

4) Kohli's ego got hurt and he stepped down from test captaincy as well when BCCI was keen on him to continue.

What is Ganguly's fault in all this and why is he giving him death stare?

 

[Savak]

Pretty immature stuff from Kohli and this shows he has a lot of growing up to do. He gets away with his antics because of his superstardom and status in Indian Cricket. You do not disrespect your legends like this in public.

 

[bala977]

Kohli >>> Ganguly. For all his sins, I am with VK for what he has done and continues to do for his country.

People who complain VK of attitude DO NOT have a clue about the attitude Ganguly had - in his playing days, that man had an ego the size of a jumbo jet.

Hats off to VK for not following the typical desi “he is a senior, so he is great” line and sticking to what he things is right.

 

[bala977]

You will never see VK disrespect a Dhoni or a Nehra .. this is a specific issue he has with Ganguly - so let us not conclude that VK is arrogant and behaves badly with everyone

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Kohli will likely end his career as amongst the top 5 ODI batters of all time.

Ganguly and Kohli both are individuals who wear their hearts on their sleeves. Things can get volatile easily between two individuals like that. That doesn't make one a hero and other a villain.

But it's always been a tough thing when your seniors assume a top position in the board. Dravid is probably the only one who keeps his relations well with his ex team mates and juniors but he's already getting a lot of flak from Indian cricket fans.