BCCI Offers Virat Farewell Test: Virat Kohli astounded the cricket world by announcing his decision of stepping down as captain of the Indian test team a day after losing the test series to South Africa.
Notably, Virat Kohli steps down as the T20I skipper of the Indian cricket team post the unsuccessful ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Right after his decision BCCI strips his ODI captaincy and named Rohit Sharma as the new skipper for the Indian white-ball cricket team.
BCCI Offers Virat Farewell Test
While Virat Kohli is expected to lead the Test team for a minimum of 2 more years, the decision breaks the heart of Virat fans.
As per the report, BCCI officials had come up with an offer for Kohli to have a farewell Test as a skipper along with a gala in Bengaluru (where the forthcoming home series opener versus Sri Lanka will be held next month) during his telephonic conversation.
Notably, Virat’s next Test outing will also be his 100th in the format. However, Kohli denied the offer.
“One match makes no difference. That’s not how I am,” the batter is reportedly known to have said in his reply.
Though BCCI President Sourav Ganguly explains the exact reason for Rohit Sharma’s appointment as ODI skipper, many fans believe that BCCI should considered Virat’s captaincy records before taking the decision of changing the ODI captaincy role.
Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma expressed his displeasure over BCCI’s decision of stripping Virat Kohli from the ODI captaincy role.
Afridi Backs Virat Kohli
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi backs Virat Kohli and praises the former Indian captain on behalf of his decision to step down as Test skipper of the Indian cricket team.
“It’s fine in my opinion. Virat has played enough cricket and led the team well. And I believe this is the correct decision. There comes a stage where you can’t handle pressure, and because of it, your own performances get affected. So, I think he has captained for a long time and at a great level. As a batsman, it’s time he enjoys his cricket,” Afridi said on the show ‘Game Set Match’ on Samaa TV.
Owing to the unavailability of Rohit Sharma for the South Africa ODI series, KL Rahul has been named as the skipper of the Indian ODI team for the South Africa tour. The 3 match ODI series will kickstart from January 19, 2022, at Boland Park, Paarl.
