‘It was bound to happen’ - Aakash Chopra on Virat Kohli’s sacking as ODI captain

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) dropped a bombshell on Wednesday (December 8) by naming Rohit Sharma as the national team’s ODI captain. Hence, the veteran opener is set to take the charge from Virat Kohli on full-time basis. It was indeed a shocking decision as Kohli, while announcing his plans to step down as T20I captain after T20 World Cup 2021, had said that he would continue to lead the team in the other two formats.

However, the BCCI selectors felt two different captains in white-ball cricket aren’t required and Rohit was appointed subsequently. Speaking on the matter, former Indian opener Aakash Chopra said that the decision was bound to happen. The commentator also explained that BCCI made a distinction between limited-overs cricket and Test matches.

The day Virat Kohli quit T20I captaincy, he was set to lose ODI captaincy soon: Aakash Chopra

“We had already discussed earlier that it was bound to happen. The day Virat Kohli quit T20I captaincy, it was a foregone conclusion that he would lose his One Day captaincy also very soon. You will go with the captain of the T20s. Who is captaining T20Is will also obviously lead in ODIs,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

The cricketer-turned commentator also asserted that you can’t have a player as Test and ODI skipper but not as T20I captain. “World over it has never happened that the Test captain is an ODI captain and is not a T20 captain. Or as Test captain and T20 captain but not in One Day. Distinction is always about white-ball cricket and red-ball cricket and that distinction has been settled,” he stated.

Speaking of Rohit’s appointment as the skipper, Chopra quipped: “He is tactically very good. The coin will fall in his side. He is a lucky captain,” he added. Meanwhile, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly revealed that Kohli was requested not to leave T20I captaincy. As the 33-year-old didn’t agree, Rohit was given the charge of both limited-overs formats.

“It’s a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by NDTV.