Why Rohit Sharma Initially Refused To Take Virat Kohli’s Test Captaincy - Sourav Ganguly Opens Up

Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said it took some convincing before Rohit Sharma accepted India’s Test captaincy after Virat Kohli stepped down from the post in early 2022.

“We always wanted Virat to be captain, but he didn’t want to continue. And that was that. Then obviously, Rohit came in — he was captaining Mumbai Indians,” Ganguly told PTI, as reported by News18.

“He was captaining in 50-over and T20 cricket. We needed a Test captain because Virat Kohli was Test captain back then, and he finished after the South Africa tour. I always believed that Rohit was a very good captain.

“So obviously, the request came from the board. I went to him and told him, ‘You should captain the Test team as well.’ He was reluctant because of the workload.

“But then I remember having a conversation with him: ‘You don’t want to finish your career without captaining India in Test matches.’ That struck a chord with him. He took a couple of days, and then he agreed.

“He’s a very adaptable and friendly person — if you have conversations with him, he’ll agree and do what’s right. And why wouldn’t anybody want to be in this Test game?”

Rohit captained India in 24 Tests, winning 12 and losing nine of those matches. Under his captaincy, India were whitewashed by New Zealand at home and then lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years.

Following the tour of Australia, both Kohli and Rohit announced their retirements from Test cricket, with Shubman Gill being appointed as the new Test captain.