Reports: Virat Kohli wants to keep captaincy in one limited-overs format over fear of losing his brand value

Certain ‘not so good’ reports have been doing the round constantly ever since Virat Kohli announced that he will be stepping down as India’s T20I skipper after the T20 World Cup. A few cricket experts believe that his ODI captaincy is also in danger at the moment and a call will be taken on the same if India don’t win the T20 World Cup.

Moreover, a few are also of the opinion that Kohli should’ve let go of the limited-overs captaincy as a whole and not only from the T20Is.

And if the latest reports in The Telegraph India are to be believed, it is being told that the 32-year-old wants to continue as ODI skipper as stepping down entirely from white-ball cricket captaincy would affect his brand value. Having said that, the market experts have played down such possibilities pointing out how Sachin Tendulkar’s brand value never got affected.

“Sachin Tendulkar’s endorsements never went down even when he gave up captaincy. The same applies for Virat Kohli. If he gives up ODI captaincy too, it might make a small dent but nothing dramatic,” Navroze D Dhondy, founder and managing director of Creatigies Communications, said.

No announcement on T20I captain from BCCI

Meanwhile, the BCCI has remained tightlipped over the whole matter and no comment has been made regarding the matter. Both the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah thanked and praised Virat Kohli for his tremendous contribution as a leader in the shortest format. Interestingly, none of the two spoke anything about the ODI and Test captaincy.

Moreover, the Indian board has also not announced Kohli’s replacement at the helm. While Rohit Sharma, the five-time IPL winner, remains the favourite, a few other names have also reportedly come up. KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant are the players who could be given captaincy and Jasprit Bumrah is being termed as the dark horse in this race.

Having said that, team India would be keen on avoiding all the controversy and play as a unit in the upcoming T20 World Cup to help the country win its first ICC trophy since 2013.