Rohit Sharma has recently been appointed as the captain of the Indian ODI team for the upcoming South Africa tour as he replaced flamboyant Virat Kohli. Sharma will now lead both the T20I and ODI sides.
As per a source close to BCCI insiders, the decision was already taken by the BCCI, but it was the selectors who took the final call.
“BCCI wanted clarity between the longest and shorter formats of the game to avoid any kind of confusion. Finally, it was left to the selectors to take a call and they decided to hand over the reins of the ODI team to Rohit,” a BCCI insider said.
While the decision of T20 captainship change was made by Kohli citing his workload, the switch in ODI leadership was a BCCI decision. After India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup, Kohli was not in BCCI’s same page and, as a result, Rohit was elevated to the top leadership position.
Kohli wasn't informed about the decision beforehand. The first signal about Kohli’s demotion from the hot seat came when BCCI roped in MS Dhoni as the team mentor for the T20 World Cup. Kohli’s inability to win ICC events was a real concern for the Board.
With India hosting the 2023 ODI World Cup, Kohli didn’t wish to give up the ODI leadership. In a way, this was Kohli throwing down the gauntlet to BCCI to remove him as ODI captain if they want and BCCI did exactly that.
A slump in form also didn’t go in Virat’s favour. He has scored only 560 runs in 12 ODIs without a century in the last two years. His average during this period has fallen to 46.66, well below his career average of 59.07. He has managed 594 runs at 49.50 in 20 T20Is during the period. His poor Test run also continued as in 13 Tests in the last two years, he made a paltry 599 runs at an average of 26.04.
Moreover, Indian cricket has barely dealt with split captaincy and two power centers in the team is not at all acceptable for the Board. It would be interesting to see how new head coach Rahul Dravid handles this precarious situation.