'Sourav Ganguly's arrival triggered the change, there was something brewing up behind the scenes' - Rashid Latif's claim on Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli recently broke his near three-year century drought in the Asia Cup 2022.
Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif feels that Virat Kohli has had a tough time ever since Sourav Ganguly had taken over as the BCCI president. Kohli, who recently broke his century drought by scoring a brilliant unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan, had to fight a lot of difficulties in the last three years owing to a slump in form. He stepped down as T20I captain after the T20 World Cup 2021, and was replaced as ODI skipper later.
He also decided to step down as the Test captain after the South Africa tour and following that came his worst season in the IPL, with just two half-centuries. The 33-year-old did not make much contributions on the England tour recently and clearly, things weren’t in right place for Kohli until the Asia Cup 2022.
We didn't know what was happening behind the scenes: Rashid Latif
Latif mentioned that a number of shocking events has happened with Kohli since the appointment of Sourav Ganguly as President in 2019, and wondered if Ganguly had a role to play in the changes. He felt that things have been taking place in the backstage which has troubled Kohli.
“They (India) took Dhoni as mentor in the World Cup. Just before that, he (Kohli) announced that he would step down as T20I captain. That was very shocking for us and we didn't know what was happening behind the scenes. Then, the team goes to South Africa and Rohit gets unfit, and KL Rahul becomes the captain. And there, Kohli left the Test captaincy as well. So a lot of things were happening,” Latif told in a discussion with Ajay Jadeja on his YouTube channel.
“Then, if I go back to the 2019 World Cup, Ravi Shastri was the head coach there. What I observe from all this is that Sourav's arrival triggered the change. Shastri left, then Rahul Dravid came, Vikram Rathour was already there. I think there was something brewing up behind the scenes. It felt that a player who was at the high of his life was deliberately troubled,” he added.
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