Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar reckons that the BCCI did everything it could to make the ODI captaincy change a smooth transition. It was announced a few days ago that Rohit Sharma will be taking over as captain of the ODI team, a move which came as a bit of a surprise as Virat Kohli had previously expressed his desire to captain the side in the 2023 World Cup.
Since the decision was made public, BCCI has been drawing a lot of criticism for not dropping Kohli unfairly. Adding to it was the pre-tour press conference by Virat, where he said the board chairman Sourav Ganguly had never asked him to quit captaincy in T20 cricket, something Ganguly had said before to the press.
However, Gavaskar was least impressed with the Indian Test skipper’s reaction to the saga, and suggested that he was expecting a bit too much.
“He was told before the public announcement, right? It’s not like he found out through the media announcement… The chairman of the Selection Committee told him before the announcement so he (Chetan Sharma) gave him (Kohli) that courtesy.
It’s not like Kohli found out through the media that he’s been removed from the captaincy. So, he did know. What more do you want?”
Gavaskar said.
He also mentioned that the Indian captain should be giving his opinion to the five-man selection team, and that is the most he can do.
He expressed his confusion as to what the controversy really is, as Kohli must have been informed before according to what he said in the press conference, which according to Gavaskar, is the most a captain can expect.
“When the selection for the Test team for South Africa would have concluded, after that – this means after the main agenda of the meeting – he must have been informed that he won’t be the ODI captain,”
Gavaskar added.
Besides addressing the much-talked about aspect, Kohli also mentioned that this captaincy change decision was a logical one from the board’s point of view, and he will do his best to support head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Sharma to achieve the best for Indian cricket.
