BCCI sacks Virat Kohli as ODI captain, Rohit Sharma takes over

Rohit Sharma has replaced Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain. Unlike the T20I captaincy change, where the announcement came from Kohli, citing his workload, this is a BCCI decision, to remove him as ODI skipper.

Three months ago, while relinquishing T20I captaincy, Kohli had expressed his desire to lead India in Tests and ODIs, going ahead. “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 wrote on Instagram on September 16. He also mentioned his conversation with former India head coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and board secretary Jay Shah before taking the decision. Giving up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s captaincy in the Indian Premier League, too, was his own choice.

On Wednesday, as the cricket board put out a press release announcing the Test squad for the South Africa tour, its last line touched upon the ODI captaincy replacement: “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.” The one-liner confirmed Kohli’s removal as ODI captain.

In another interesting development, the selectors elevated Rohit to Test vice-captaincy, replacing Ajinkya Rahane, although the latter was picked for the three-match series in South Africa. Rohit’s growing stature in the team can offer a scope to read between the lines, that phasing out of Kohli, the captain, has begun.

Kohli has been India’s one of the most successful white-ball captains. In 95 ODIs, he won in 65, giving him a winning percentage of 70-plus. In 45 T20Is, he led India to victory 27 times. Rohit has been Kohli’s longstanding deputy in limited-overs cricket, captaining the team in 10 ODIs and 19 T20Is before he was given the full-time charge during the recently concluded three-match home series against New Zealand. He started with a clean sweep. Five IPL titles, leading Mumbai Indians, made him a shoo-in as Kohli’s successor.