Team India Test skipper cleared the air around his decision to quit the captaincy from the T20 format and added that he had told the BCCI that he wanted to continue to lead in the 50-over and the longest format, however, there was no communication from the board that he shouldn’t give up the position in the shortest format as well.
Talking about the same in the pre-departure press conference for the South Africa tour, Kohli on Wednesday said, “I had told BCCI that I want to quit T20I captaincy. I wasn’t told to reconsider it. It was received well, without any hesitation; I was told it’s a progressive step and it’s in the right direction. I had told them that I want to continue ODI and Test captaincy unless the office bearers think otherwise. I had given that option to them.”
However, Kohli’s statement contradicted the one made by the BCCI president and former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who a few days ago had said that he personally requested the batting icon not to give up the T20I captaincy.
Speaking to News18 a few days ago, Ganguly had said, “I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy. Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket. He has captained for a long period of time and these things happen. Because I have captained for a long period of time; therefore, I know. Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that’s why this decision. I don’t know what’s going to happen in future. But as I said, it’s a good team and it has some fantastic players and I hope they will turn it around.”
The 33-year old, on the other hand, didn’t have prior knowledge of losing his ODI captaincy and he said that he got to know about it, just 90 minutes before the selection committee meeting in which they picked the squad for the Test series against South Africa.
“I was communicated one and a half hours before the selection meeting. I was told that I will not be the ODI captain. There was no communication with me before that. We chatted briefly about it during the selection meeting, but no communication about this was made before the selection meeting on ODI captaincy,” he added.
