The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)  announced a major development, where Rohit Sharma – who had recently replaced Virat Kohli as the T20I skipper, was also appointed ODI captain going forward. While there was no official announcement on the major development, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has finally broken his silence on the matter and has revealed that the board had requested Kohli not to step down as the skipper from the shortest format.

Ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, Kohli announced his decision to step down as the T20I skipper after the conclusion of the showpiece event.

Speaking to ANI, Ganguly said after Kohli decided against continuing as the T20I skipper, the board didn’t feel it was right to have two different skippers for two formats in white-ball cricket.

“It’s a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats,” Ganguly said. 

Ganguly went on to add that he personally spoke with Kohli along with the chairman of selectors.

“So it was decided that Virat will continue as Test captain and Rohit will take over as the white-ball captain. I as President personally spoke to Virat Kohli and the chairman of selectors has also spoken to him. 

“We have full faith in Rohit Sharma’s leadership abilities, and Virat will continue as the Test captain. We as BCCI are confident that Indian cricket is in good hands. We thank Virat Kohli for his contributions as captain in the white-ball format,” the BCCI president added.

Rohit, along with being appointed as the skipper in white-ball cricket for Team India, also replaced Ajinkya Rahane as the vice-captain in the longest format of the game. Kohli will continue to lead India in the 5-day format.