The Indian test captain revealed in a press conference that he was told about the replacement in the leadership group 1.5 hours before the announcement of the team. The Press conference gained a lot of eyeballs, not necessarily for all the glossy reasons, as it usually does.
Rohit Sharma replaced the 32-year-old, in the role of a captain of India, in the One Day Internationals. The sudden change in the top role of India’s limited-overs set up, although expected to few, came as a major shock to many. The voices of dissent grew louder and louder across social media. After all this, one question which everyone was pondering over was the fairness of this decision.
Although the timeline of this problem might seem recent, it dates back to when reports about Virat quitting the T20 captaincy started floating around in October.
He took the entire Cricketing world by storm when he announced his decision to step down from captaincy days before the 2021 T20 World Cup. The campaign was no less than a nightmare for team India, both on and off the field. This loss added to the dry run of the Indian team in ICC events.
Post the T20 World cup misery, the possibility of sterner and more disturbing questions being asked was very evident. The game plans, off-field reports, and the subsequent results did not help Virat’s case.
When Virat announced his retirement from the T20 internationals, he also stated that he would continue to captain India in the longer formats of the game.
Interestingly, the first One Day series, which India will play after Virat decided to step down, will not have Virat as full-time captain. It would be too optimistic on anyone’s part to believe that everything is fine with the top men in Indian cricket, an impracticality indeed.
After the announcement of the new captain, the Board president, Saurav Ganguly, voiced out that he had personally spoken to Virat and requested him to not give up the T20 captaincy. Virat Kohli mentioned in the Press conference that he ‘wasn’t told to reconsider the decision’.
Two bosses of Indian cricket, two of the most decorated players to have captained India, and two contradictory opinions, whosoever lied, no one would suffer more than Indian cricket.
In the same Press conference, Virat, yet again, refuted the reports of him getting along well with Rohit Sharma. “I am tired of clarifying”, stated the Test skipper.
At the moment, there remain plenty of questions to be answered. How many Indian captains had contradicted their bosses in the board in a press meeting hosted by the BCCI?
The setting of this entire episode is as pulpy as it would get for a bystander, but for those who care about the game in India, it is not less than a nightmare.
We do not know what is wrong with who. But one thing we know for sure, that not everything is right either.
