NEWS
Follow UsOn Saturday, following a series loss against South Africa 2-1, the 33-year-old Virat Kohli stepped down as the Test skipper of the Indian team. During his stint as a skipper, India not just won 40 Tests but also climbed to the top of the Test rankings.
In the wake of the sudden decision, India’s ODI vice-captain for the South Africa series, Jasprit Bumrah insisted that the 33-year-old will always be a leader in the group. Bumrah also opined that the team respects his personal decision and will always back him.
“It is a personal decision, we respect his decision. It is an immense pleasure to play under his leadership, I made my Test debut under him. His contribution has been great and will always be great. So that (leadership) will always stay in the group,” Bumrah opened up in the online press conference ahead of the first ODI against South Africa.
The pacer also appreciated Kohli’s move that revolutionized Indian cricket, in terms of bringing about a fitness culture. Alongside that, Bumrah stated that Kohli’s assistance and knowledge of the game will always be immense to the Indian team.
“As we have already spoken before, he has been the leader of the team, he has brought so much change. He has brought the fitness culture, everyone got fitter. His contribution has been immense and will always be immense. His assistance and knowledge of the game will always be there with us. It is always important for us and it will be the same going further.
“As a team unit, we got to know it (Kohli’s decision to step down) before in a team meeting. As a team, he told us and we honour his decision and we congratulated him as a team and wished him all the best. That’s the conversation we had with him.”
On the ODI World Cup in India, the 28-year-old added that the vision and preparations for the tournament is already underway. He also stated that everyone in the group will get equal opportunities to express themselves ahead of the marquee event.
“Of course, we have a vision, preparations have started already. We will give equal opportunities to people and then assess them on the basis of that. It is important to have a vision and follow that, in order to have some sort of system.
“Obviously, you have to move forward (from the Test series loss), the test changes. It is a shorter format, faster pace and we have to make changes as a bowling unit and not much. We will go with a fresh mindset into the ODI series and will try to take the team forward.”
India will lock horns with South Africa on January 19 (Wednesday) in Paarl for the first ODI of the three-match series.