Virat Kohli refused to step down as ODI captain, BCCI sacked him: Report

Virat Kohli was removed as Team India’s white-ball captain after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday that opening batsman Rohit Sharma would be replacing Virat Kohli as the captain in the T20I and ODI formats.

Although the decision to step down from captaincy in the T20I formats was made by Virat Kohli himself, the batsman intended to continue leading the team in the ODIs and Test cricket. Reports suggest that Kohli was given 48 hours by the BCCI to voluntarily step down as the ODI captain, but his refusal to do so apparently led the board and the national selection committee to sack him and appoint Rohit Sharma as the new white-ball captain. “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” the BCCI mentioned in a tweet.

Claiming that it was the Indian selectors who took the final call on the matter, a BCCI source reportedly informed The Indian Express, “The BCCI wanted absolute clarity between red-ball and white-ball cricket. The BCCI wanted a complete (leadership) separation between the longest format and shorter formats to avoid any confusion. In the end, it was left to the selectors to take a call. They decided to appoint Rohit as new ODI captain.”