'A leader who led the side with grit, passion and determination' - BCCI appreciates Virat Kohli for his stint as India's ODI skipper

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appreciated Virat Kohli’s contribution as skipper of the side in the ODIs. The board recently announced that the Indian selectors have named Rohit Sharma as Team India’s new ODI skipper, replacing Kohli. The latter had previously announced that he will step down as team India’s T20I skipper post the T20 World Cup 2021.

However, with Sharma set to take his duties in the white-ball format, Kohli will lead the team only in the longest format. He had taken the leadership duties of white-ball cricket from MS Dhoni in the year 2017.  The swashbuckling batter led India in 95 ODI matches wherein the team won 65 and lost 27. It is to be noted that he finished his tenure as the ODI skipper with an impressive win percentage of 70.43.

The batter is known for bringing in a lot of passion and energy on the field and on most occasions has led the team from the front. Though India couldn’t taste the ICC trophy glory under him, Kohli has captained the team to 15 bilateral series wins from the 18 they played under his tenure. BCCI thus took it to their official Twitter account to praise Kohli for his stint as team India’s ODI skipper.

“A leader who led the side with grit, passion & determination. 🇮🇳🔝 Thank you Captain @imVkohli !👏👏 #TeamIndia,” the tweet read.

Here is BCCI’s tweet acknowledging Virat Kohli’s stint as ODI skipper: 

A leader who led the side with grit, passion & determination. 🇮🇳🔝

Thank you Captain @imVkohli!👏👏#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/gz7r6KCuWF

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 9, 2021

BCCI’s president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday, December 9 opened up on the entire split captaincy debate. He reckoned that the selectors weren’t in favor of having two different skippers in two white-ball formats and that led to the decision about the same.

“We had requested Virat not to step down as T20I captain but he didn’t want to continue as captain. So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white-ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership. I don’t know (about confusion) but that’s what they (selectors) felt. That’s how this conclusion was arrived at – that let Rohit captain in white-ball and let Virat be the red-ball skipper,” Sourav Ganguly said as quoted by India Today.