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Everyone has forgotten that it was I who appointed Rohit as India's captain: Ganguly
Follow UsSourav Ganguly, who was then the BCCI president, received a lot of flak for Virat Kohli leaving India's captaincy
Virat Kohli left the T20I captaincy after India failed to go past the first round in the 2021 T20 World Cup. He made the call to manage his workload as an all-format player, but a couple of months later, he was also asked to leave the ODI captaincy. Following India’s defeat in the Test series in South Africa, Kohli even left the red-ball captaincy.
On the eve of 8th December 2021, India’s senior selection committee announced the squad led by Kohli for the Test series in South Africa. At the bottom of the press release, there was one line stating that Rohit Sharma will take over the ODI captaincy from Virat Kohli. And just like that, Kohli, who led India in 95 ODIs, was sacked from the ODI captaincy.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who was then the BCCI president, received a lot of flak for the way this entire process was handled. Under Rohit, India lost the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup and then went down to Australia in the grand finale of the 2023 ODI World Cup. The Men in Blue, however, managed to break the trophy drought by winning the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies.
Ganguly has now said that all those people who were criticising him back then have now forgotten that it was him who appointed Rohit as India’s captain. “When I handed Rohit Sharma the captaincy of the Indian team, everyone criticised me,” Ganguly told AajKal.
“Now that India has won the T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, everyone has stopped abusing me for it. In fact, I think everyone has forgotten that it was I who appointed him as the captain of the Indian team.”
India didn’t lose a single game in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Both Rohit and Kohli have now retired from T20Is but will continue to play the other two formats. Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, has already announced that Rohit will lead India in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
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