Indian skipper Virat Kohli broke the internet on Thursday when he announced that after the completion of the upcoming T20 World Cup, he would leave the captaincy in T20 cricket. The Delhi-lad took to his official Twitter handle and shared a long statement stating that he would give up the T20 leadership due to excessive workload.
“I have decided to step down as the T20 captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October. Understanding workload is a very important thing, and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket,” Kohli had written in a statement.
However, now a fresh media report suggests a completely different story. According to a report in PTI, Kohli had recently gone to the selection committee with a shocking proposal to remove Rohit Sharma as the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team, citing that KL Rahul should be looked for the concerned position keeping in mind the long-term prospect and also have Rishabh Pant as Rahul’s deputy in T20Is.
The report didn’t name anyone specific but quoted a board official stating, “This didn’t go down well with the Board which believes that Kohli doesn’t want an actual successor”.
“Virat knew that he would have been removed from white ball captaincy. If the team doesn’t do well at the UAE World T20, he was gone for good as far as white-ball leadership is concerned,” the report further mentioned.
Kohli took over as captain in the shortest format in 2017 when MS Dhoni had stepped down from his position. This is going to be the first time that Kohli will lead India in the ICC T20 World Cup. Earlier, he has led the ‘Men in Blue’ to the final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and the semi-final of the 2019 ICC World Cup.
