As India lost the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final to Australia by 209 runs, fingers were pointed at decision Rohit Sharma took over a period of five days. While Rohit was being scrutinised for every misstep, fans took to social media to say that Virat Kohli should have never left the captaincy. In an exclusive interview with Aaj Tak, former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly revisited the controversy when Kohli left Test captaincy saying that the board had no idea about it.
“BCCI were not prepared for Virat Kohli leaving the Test captaincy. It was unexpected for us also after the South Africa tour. Only Virat Kohli can reveal why he left the captaincy. There is no point talking about this now because Virat Kohli left the Test captaincy. Selectors had to appoint an India captain. And Rohit was the best option at that time,” Ganguly said.
Earlier, Kohli had announced that he would leave T20I captaincy after T20 World Cup 2021. As BCCI wanted same captain in T20Is and ODIs, Kohli was removed as ODI captain. Kohli had alleged that he was not informed about the decision to remove him as ODI captain. Few months later, Kohli left Test captaincy after India lost the Test series in South Africa by 2-1. At that time Rohit was appointed as Test captain as well after taking over as the leadership role in limited-overs cricket.
Even when India were without their skipper Rohit in the rescheduled Test against England after testing positive for Covid-19, Jasprit Bumrah made his captaincy debut in the presence of Kohli in the side.
Kohli holds the record for most Test wins as Indian captain. He led India in 68 Tests out of which India won 40, lost 17 whereas 11 ended in a draw. Kohli has a win percentage of 58.82, better than any Indian captain who has led in more than 10 Tests. So far, Rohit has won four out of seven Tests he has led in.
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