Rohit Sharma has failed to recover from his left hamstring injury, which kept him out of the Test series, and will miss the ODIs in South Africa too. Vice-captain KL Rahul will take over the reins in the absence of India’s regular white ball captain.
But selection issues took a back seat once chief selector Chetan Sharma opened up on the controversy surrounding Virat Kohli and his decision to quit T20I captaincy in September.
Days after Sourav Ganguly had said that he had personally requested Kohli to reconsider quitting the captaincy before the T20 World Cup, the India Test captain had contradicted the BCCI president during his explosive press conference before leaving for South Africa. He made it clear that he had no such communication with Sourav and that he was informed about his removal as ODI captain 90 minutes before the selection meeting.
The BCCI has maintained a stoic silence on the issue but chief selector Sharma’s verbal volleys are sure to reignite the debate.
“When the meeting started before the World Cup, it was a surprise for everyone. All present told him to have a rethink. All selectors felt that it would affect the World Cup. Everyone requested Virat to continue for the sake of Indian cricket. Everyone was in a state of shock,” said Sharma.
“All present had told Kohli to wait on T20 captaincy till the World Cup got over. It was a surprise for everyone to hear about his decision to quit T20 captaincy. All of us told him to reconsider because we could have discussed this after the World Cup. We felt it could affect the performances in the showpiece event. For the sake of Indian cricket he was asked to continue as captain,” Sharma said at a news conference on Friday.
“The conveners were there, board officials were there. Sabhi ne bola hai (everyone told him), Who won’t tell you? If this news comes to you, you are in a shock,” Sharma said.
“But since we had a World T20 to play, we never wanted it (decision) to affect the team. He (Kohli) had his plans and we respect him. He is a pillar of the team and if he has taken a decision we respect it. But yes, everybody told him to think about it,” he said.
Bumrah vice-captain
With Rohit unavailable because of injury and Rahul taking over as captain, Jasprit Bumrah has been named vice-captain. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel will also miss the ODIs because of injuries while Mohammed Shami has been “rested” as part of workload management plan.
That injury-related issues had delayed naming the ODI squad had been reported by The Telegraph on December 27.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who last played an ODI in 2017, is in the 18-member squad. Venkatesh Iyer has been rewarded for his performances in the IPL and T20Is with a maiden ODI call-up. The Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder is being considered as a substitute for Hardik Pandya.
The other all-rounder is Washington Sundar, who missed the T20 World Cup with injury. Shreyas Iyer, who has since made a successful Test debut, also made a successful return to ODIs. Shubman Gill hasn’t been considered while Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan have found a berth.
