The national selectors on Wednesday decided to crack the whip by removing Virat Kohli as captain in white ball cricket.
Rohit Sharma, who had taken over as T20I captain following Kohli’s decision in October to step down after the T20 World Cup in the UAE, will take charge in ODIs too ahead of the South Africa tour. Rohit will also be deputy to Kohli in Tests as Ajinkya Rahane was stripped of the vice-captaincy because of his poor form.
That Rohit was set to take over the white-ball reins had been reported by The Telegraph on November 2.
The writing had been on the wall since India’s failure to make the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup but Kohli refused to read much into it. He wasn’t keen on giving up the ODI leadership when chief selector Chetan Sharma and his two colleagues met him in Mumbai after the series victory against New Zealand.
Sources told The Telegraph that discussions with Kohli mainly centred around the Test squad for South Africa but the ODI captaincy bit did come up. He was told in no uncertain terms that he should give up the ODI leadership since it wasn’t prudent to have two captains in white ball cricket. But he refused to budge.
There is, however, a strong buzz that Kohli may make himself unavailable for the three-match ODI series that follows the Tests in South Africa.
Kohli’s failure to win any limited overs ICC event since the time he took over in January 2017 went against him. With the ODI World Cup scheduled in India in 2023, the selectors didn’t wish to take any chances. They wanted to give Rohit ample time to get accustomed to his new role in keeping with the “continuity factor”.
Under Kohli, India finished runners-up at the 2017 Champions Trophy before losing in the semi-finals at the 50-over World Cup in 2019. In his only T20 World Cup as captain last month, India’s campaign ended after the group stage, following back-to-back losses to Pakistan and New Zealand.
The BCCI had given him a long rope but decided against extending it after the showpiece event in the UAE. The dressing room rumblings of discontent also didn’t go unnoticed. Another opportunity could have meant disastrous consequences.
It is widely believed that the split captaincy will help Kohli recover his batting form — he has failed to score a century across formats since November 2019. He himself has often cited “workload management” as one of the key areas to work on to prolong his career.
The selectors, however, refrained from announcing the ODI squad.
Rahane included
Under-fire batter Ajinkya Rahane managed to hold on to his position in the 18-member squad but is expected to face stiff competition for a place in the playing XI following the presence of Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari. While Iyer scored a century on debut against New Zealand, Vihari has been among the runs for India A in South Africa.
KL Rahul too returned to the squad along with Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Shubman Gill were not considered for selection because of injuries.
Jayant Yadav, who impressed in his comeback Test at the Wankhede, retained his place as the second spinner after Ravichandran Ashwin.
Test Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj
Standby players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla
