BCCI removes Virat Kohli as captain of ODI, Rohit Sharma takes over:
Another interesting thing to note is that the selectors promoted Rohit to Test vice-captaincy, retaking Ajinkya Rahane.
Rohit Sharma has been appointed to replace Virat Kohli as India’s ODI team captain. In contrast to the T20I captaincy changes, in which Kohli announced due to his work, it is a BCCI decision to remove him from the position of ODI captain.
Just three months earlier, before taking over as captain of the T20I, Kohli expressed his wish to take over the leadership of India in both ODIs and Tests shortly.
“Understanding workload is an essential thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all three formats and regularly captaining for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI cricket,” Kohli posted on Instagram on the 16th of September.
He also discussed his meeting with the former India director of cricket Ravi Shastri, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and board secretary Jay Shah before taking the decision.
He decided to resign his captaincy with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Indian Premier League, too.
On Wednesday, when the cricket board released an announcement in a press release about the test team of the South Africa tour, its final line addressed the ODI captain’s replacement “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.”
The single line confirmed Kohli’s demotion from the position of ODI captain.
However, a different and exciting aspect is that the selectors promoted Rohit into Test vice-captaincy and replaced Ajinkya Rahane, who was chosen for three matches in South Africa. Rohit’s increasing stature in the team may provide an opportunity to see between the lines that is why the gradual departure of Kohli, who is captain, has started.
Kohli is India’s captain with the highest success in white-ball. In 95 ODIs, he took the title at 65, giving him the highest winning percentage of 70 percent or more.
In 45 T20Is, he led India to victory on 27 occasions. Rohit Kohli has been Kohli’s longest-running partner in limited-overs cricket. He led the team for 19 T20Is and 10 ODIs before he was handed the full-time job in the recent three-match home tour against New Zealand.
The series began with a clean sweep. He won five IPL titles and the lead for Mumbai Indians and Mumbai Indians, who could have him as Kohli’s successor.
Kohli was appointed captain of limited-overs at the time of MS Dhoni in 2017, and under his leadership, India was able to win limited-overs tournaments across every nation.
However, not winning an ICC trophy was a gap in his white-ball captaincy. The closest India got to joining the international silverware was the year 2017’s ICC Champions Trophy, where India fell in the final to Pakistan during the championship game.
This year’s T20 World Cup in UAE in 2018 was likely to be the final straw for India; India lost their first two group games in the group stage against Pakistan and New Zealand, respectively, and crashed out of the tournament during the group stage.
The BCCI seemed to have a more positive approach to their cricket team’s T20 World Cup debacle, calling it “one bad tournament.” However, it was discovered that the board was searching for a new direction for limited-overs cricket with the new captain. The next T20 World Cup in Australia is only 12 months away.
India is hosting the 50-over World Cup in 2023. In the end, both BCCI along the select committee had a clear desire to allow Rohit time to construct the team for the two forthcoming ICC tournaments.
A slump in form also did not do Kohli well. In the past two seasons, the batsman had scored 560 runs across 12ODIs but has not scored 100 runs. His average over this time is 46.66, far less than his career average of 59.07.
In 20 T20Is simultaneously, the player has run 594 times at 49.50, and in 13 Tests over the past two seasons, he scored 599 runs with the rate of 26.04. Shastri, however, has been defending his captain’s lack of a lean patch and cited the issue of bubble fatigue.
“In the past 24 months, it has been the case that they (players) were at home on the field for 25 straight days. So no matter what you’re called, if you’re named Bradman, and you’re in the middle of a bubble, your score will drop since you’re human,” he said.
Indian cricket has had difficulty dealing with split captaincy and two power centers within the team. It will be interesting to learn how newly appointed chief coach Rahul Dravid will handle this in the future.
Under the leadership of Kohli, India has scaled new heights in Tests, and Rohit is still the captain of the past. However, Rohit is now a significant member of the team’s leadership even there.
