It just took four months to change the overall scenario in Indian cricket. No one would have expected to have seen changes of such intensity. The dramatic changes in Indian cricket probably had taken place in a period of four months- from September 16, 2021 to January 15, 2022- things changed suddenly. One of the most successful figures of Indian cricket completely ended his stint as the captain of Indian team.
It all started around the last year’s T20 World Cup, when Kohli had announced to relinquish his T20 captaincy. It is believed that the eventful saga between Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Kohli probably had started from then. After stepping down from the role of T20 captain, Kohli lost his ODI captaincy as well. And now, after suffering the 2-1 Test defeat against South Africa, the Delhi-born batsman decided to step down as the Test captain of Indian cricket team as well.
Significance of the decision
But the discussion that is taking place almost everywhere is what does this decision of stepping down from Test captaincy suggest? What are the ramifications of such a huge decision like this? And the biggest question of them all surely is whether everything is fine in Indian cricket or not.
It is believed that Kohli was aware of the negative signs which will hit hard in future. The talismanic batsman sensed something like this around last year’s T20 World Cup or to be more precise even before the T20 World Cup had started.
But what eventually led Kohli to take such a huge decision like this? Was he under pressure? Multiple decisions taken by Kohli one after another are suggesting this only.
Defeat in T20 World Cup
The defeat in T20 World Cup is believed to be the third negative result of Kohli's captaincy after the debacle in Champions Trophy and defeat in ODI World Cup and perhaps Kohli also realised that road for him as a captain will end pretty soon.
It is believed that Indian team's defeat against Pakistan and New Zealand in the T20 World Cup changed the attitude of BCCI totally. The BCCI became tougher in its approach and it started putting more pressure on Kohli's ODI captaincy ultimately. The ODI captaincy was handed over to Rohit Sharma.
And then took place the famous press conference of Indian Test captain where he targeted the BCCI and totally refused BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s claim of requesting Kohli to continue as the T20 captain.
Upcoming days
Kohli might have ended all the speculations regarding his captaincy on January 15 but still there are some unknown matters. Cricket fans are eagerly waiting to see Kohli’s role under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Is Kohli going to make more sensational claims and get involved in another confrontation with the BCCI?
This further takes us back to the old question. Is everything well within the Indian cricket circuit? If that was the case then why did Kohli decide to step down from the Test captaincy.
