Explained: Virat Kohli, BCCI, Rohit Sharma, and Indian cricket’s captaincy controversy

“Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly 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,” he posted on September 16.

🇮🇳 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Ds7okjhj9J

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 16, 2021

The selectors, however, were averse to having separate captains in white-ball cricket. Accordingly, they appointed Rohit as ODI skipper on top of his T20I leadership. Kohli was retained as the Test captain.

“…He stepped down as T20I captain and the selectors decided not to split limited-overs captaincy, opting for a complete separation. The bottom line is that there can’t be two white-ball captains,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly told The Indian Express.

Did BCCI/selectors communicate with Kohli?

According to Ganguly, the BCCI had requested Kohli not to relinquish his T20I captaincy. “We (BCCI) had requested Virat not to step down as T20I captain.”

During the pre-departure press conference on Wednesday (December 15), ahead of India’s tour of South Africa, Kohli contradicted that, saying nobody had communicated with him in that regard.

“I was never told not to give up T20I captaincy. There was no prior communication to me at all since I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the 8th of December, where I got a call before the selection meeting. The chief selector (Chetan Sharma) discussed with me the Test team, to which we both agreed. And before ending the call, I was told the five selectors have decided I will not be the ODI captain, to which I replied, ‘okay, fine’. In the selection call afterwards, we chatted about it briefly. That’s what happened. There was no communication prior to that at all,” Kohli said.

On the day of the ODI captaincy announcement, a top BCCI official told The Indian Express that there was no communication with Kohli (in the lead-up to the selection meeting) regarding the ODI captaincy change. At Wednesday’s press conference, Kohli confirmed that in a way.

Virat Kohli after India’s victory in the 2-match test cricket series against New Zealand, at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. (PTI Photo: Shashank Parade, File)

What about the rumoured dressing-room rift?

This speculation offered a throwback to the 1980s, when an alleged rift between Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev filled newspaper column inches. Kapil’s omission from the Calcutta Test against England in 1984-85, on the heels of his dismissal in the Delhi Test, playing a poor shot, had triggered the controversy.

Both Kohli and Rohit are superstars in the Indian team. As the latter was ruled out of the Tests in South Africa due to a left hamstring injury, some reports claimed Kohli would be absent in the three ODIs that would follow the Test series.

Former India captain and the current Hyderabad Cricket Association president Mohammad Azharuddin tweeted on Tuesday (December 14): “Virat Kohli has informed that he’s not available for the ODI series & Rohit Sharma is unavailable f[o]r [the] upcoming test. There is no harm in takin[g] a break but [the] timing has to be better. This just substantiates speculation ab[ou]t [the] rift. Neither wil[l] be giving up [the] other form of cricket.”

Kohli called out the rumour-mongers on Wednesday, saying: “I was and I am available for selection all this time. You should not be asking me this question, honestly. This question should be asked to people who are writing about these things and their sources, because as far as I’m concerned, I was always available. I have not had any communication with the BCCI saying I want to rest, so there were a few things that came out in the past as well that it was said I was attending some events or something that was absolutely not true either.”

He added: “All these people who are writing these things and their sources, to me they are absolutely not credible. As I said, I’m available for selection for the ODIs in South Africa and I’m always keen to play.”

And how did Kohli react to the speculation about his rift with Rohit?

He rubbished it, and promised “absolute support and cooperation” to Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid in white-ball cricket. He spoke about Rohit’s captaincy in glowing terms. “No problem between me and Rohit. I have grown tired explaining that over the last two-and-a-half years. Rohit is a very able captain. Tactically very sound.”

The day before, Rohit had spoken about how he enjoyed playing under Kohli’s captaincy.

So was Ganguly’s statement that Kohli was told to reconsider quitting the T20I captaincy, an attempted exercise in damage control?

The BCCI’s one-liner to sack Kohli as ODI captain was apparently disrespectful to the world-class batsman who has a win record touching 70 per cent win in ODIs. In Tests, India have reached unprecedented heights under his leadership, winning back-to-back series in Australia, and are currently leading 2-1 against England in the five-match series. (The fifth Test could not be held, and has been rescheduled for next year.)

The Indian cricket hierarchy probably underestimated the fan following of Kohli, a player who has 45.3 million followers on Twitter. After being mercilessly trolled on social media, the cricket board on December 9 put out a “Thank you Captain” tweet, while Ganguly’s comment was ostensibly a part of the damage-control exercise.

Does the whole thing make Dravid’s role even more important?

One of the most respected cricketers in the game, the Indian team’s new coach has the challenge of dealing with a split captaincy and handling two strong characters in the dressing-room. “Rahul bhai (Dravid) is a great man-manager,” Kohli said.

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