Seven months after denying his role in replacing Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma as Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly recalled his influence over the same affair.
The Indian Men’s cricket team underwent a major leadership overhaul in the winter of 2021/22. In the aftermath of India’s disastrous T20 World Cup campaign, Virat Kohli stepped down as captain. “I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket,” Kohli’s statement included.
Not too long afterwards, the BCCI announced Rohit Sharma as captain for both ODIs and T20Is, indicating a change in leadership in ODIs as well.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.#TeamIndia | @ImRo45 pic.twitter.com/hcg92sPtCa
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 8, 2021
In a press conference ahead of the South Africa tour that followed, Kohli clarified: “I told them [the selectors] I will continue as ODI captain and Test captain. I told them at that point clearly that if the office bearers or the selectors don’t want me to handle either of the responsibility, I am fine with it ... I said this clearly when I approached the BCCI to discuss my T20I captaincy.”
Sourav Ganguly, who was the BCCI president at the time, told PTI a day later: “Yes, we did consider that [retaining Kohli] but if you look at Rohit’s record in whatever ODIs he has captained for India, it’s very good. Bottomline: there can't be two white-ball captains. ... This is the primary reason for having Rohit as white-ball captain.”
Kohli led India in the Test matches in South Africa, but stepped down as Test captain shortly afterwards. Rohit assumed responsibilities across all three formats.
On the Bengali reality show Dadagiri Unlimited (Season 10) in December 2023, Ganguly denied his role in the sacking of Kohli as Indian captain, though he also claimed: “I told him [Kohli], ‘if you’re not interested to lead in T20Is, it’s better if you step down from entire white-ball cricket’.”
Now, in a recent interview with the Bengali newspaper Aajkaal, Ganguly recalled his influence in appointing Rohit as the Indian captain: “They all criticised me when I appointed Rohit as captain. Now, when India have won a trophy [the 2024 T20 World Cup] under him, no one is criticising me anymore. They have also forgotten that I had made him captain.”
To sum up, two and a half years ago, Ganguly had provided specific reasons for replacing Kohli as captain with Rohit. Now, he maintains that he did “make Rohit captain” but denies his role Kohli’s sacking.
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