The test squad for the South Africa tour was announced recently. It was all excellent that skipper Virat Kohli is still the captain of the test team, but Hitman and opener Rohit Sharma will replace Ajinkya Rahane and become the vice-captain of the Indian test squad. After outstandingly defeating New Zealand in the previous match and gaining the ICC no one spot in the test Rankings, team India is on cloud nine.
But it was revealed to the press by the president of BCCI, Saurabh Ganguly, the former Indian captain, that Viral Kohli will no longer lead team India in ODI matches. Opener Rohit Sharma replaces him.
Keep in mind that the decision had enraged many Kohli fans all over India. And if you are an Indian, you should know Virat Kohli is not just any captain. In the past, Virat, in one of his press conferences, showed his desire to lead the Indian team in ODI only, so why did BCCI take this huge step was a mystery.
Before the T20 world cup, it was announced that Rohit would replace Virat in T20 format after the World Cup. It was an impromptu decision that broke many hearts as well. But it was also acceptable for two reasons:
- Virat himself stood by this decision
- The offensive performance of Team India in the T20 World Cup
Though people nowadays are much more sympathetic towards the teammates but still the sour taste and the aftermath of the loss was significant factor that pushed the people into accepting Rohit as the new captain.
Ganguly, in a press release, has issued a statement saying that he consulted the board of the selectors that selected the team and formulated a unanimous decision that they do not need two captions for white-ball cricket.
It was an inconvenience for them to have two white ball captains when they could go with one. Yes, in white-ball format, we needed to see the change, but the rumour mill is running faster than ever.
Rohit is an excellent player, no doubt, but a captain Has no match. His excellence and calm demeanour while doing his job is seen in IPL, where he leads a team, ‘Mumbai Indians’. Under his captaincy, the team have won the highest number of trophies or seasons, as you call it. But that’s not it.
According to data, The winning rate is compared between the three captains of Team India, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit; the winning percentage is 55%, 68.42% and 80% for each captain, respectively. While in Domestic ground, the average % of a win for Virat is more, nearly 68% as compared to Rohit’s 66.66%, in foreign soil, Rohit is a better performer that is his 85.71% to 68.33% of Virat.
While Virat fans are sulking, Rohit fans are Rejoicing. To think about fan wars will be childish, but yeah, they are also occurring. Rohit fans always wanted him to lead team India. It was also somewhat true that Rohit was the better alternative.
Virat is an excellent player. No doubt also, as a captain, he is fantastic, but the issue is that under his captaincy, India did not win a single major tournament despite performing well. Not any world cup, not a single champions trophy.
Even in the IPL, his team has never won a single award. While MS Dhoni, the GOAT, remains the legendary, achievers his successor Virat has not achieved a single fit. And the fact that India lost the last T20 world cup is a bitter pill to swallow.
So when Ganguly said they no longer needed two different white ball captains, he meant that Virat needed to retrospect and improvise. BCCI can no longer deal with a team that returns empty-handed. That is why they replaced Ajinkya with Rohit. It seems like BCCI have started to have trust issues when it comes to Virat.
In the white-ball game, they have replaced him with a soft blow to his enormous fandom and their egos, and also in the Red ball game, they are thoroughly observing the course that the Virat squad will take upon to revise their strategies from the boardrooms.
This Fiasco indicates that the most followed, highest-earning, the phenomenal Virat Kohli, is challenging as a captain. While fans are quarrelling among themselves, they do not realize that this is not the end of the possibility of reshuffling in the future is still there. Both prospects for captaincy are excellent individually.
It felt like an experiment; if this works, another chapter will be added to Indian cricket. If it does not, we may see some other significant changes in the future. Till then, we can only watch and see.
