Leader who led with grit, passion: BCCI thanks Kohli after Sacking him!

NT Correspondent

A day after replacing him with Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI skipper, the BCCI on Thursday thanked Virat Kohli for displaying “grit, passion and determination” during his tenure. Rohit was also named Kohli’s deputy in the Test format. The Mumbaikar is already India’s T20 captain.

“A leader who led the side with grit, passion & determination. Thank you Captain @ imVkohli,” the Board tweeted on the day after completely omitting any reference to him in the press note that announced Rohit’s elevation to ODI captaincy.

In a captaincy that began in 2017, Kohli led India to 65 wins out of 95 matches with an admirable winning percentage of 70.43.

‘Requested Virat not to step down as T20I captain’

Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, has confi rmed that the board had requested Virat Kohlito continue as India’s T20I captain, but once he decided to step down, the selectors decided to remove him from the ODI captaincy and install Rohit Sharma in his place to avoid “too much of leadership” in India’s shortformat squads.

“We had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain but he didn’t want to continue as captain,” Ganguly said. “So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white-ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership.”

‘Kohli is still a leader of the team’

Rohit Sharma has stated that Virat Kohli is still a leader of the team, and his presence is very important in the squad. “The quality and his kind of batsmanship is required. Plus, he is still a leader of the team. All those things put together, you don’t want to miss out. You don’t want to ignore that kind of stuff. His presence is very important to the team,” said Rohit on the show ‘Backstage with Boria.’