‘This is definitely shocking’ – Virat Kohli’s childhood coach reacts to Team India's captaincy controversy

Virat Kohli’s unceremonious removal as India’s ODI captain has been a huge subject of debate in the cricket world lately. The 33-year-old, who stepped down as T20I captain post the T20 World Cup 2021 last month, had expressed his desire to continue leading in the other two formats. Hence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took the world by storm by naming Rohit Sharma as the new ODI skipper last week.

Explaining the decision, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly claimed that Kohli was requested to not quit T20I captaincy. As he didn’t agree to do so, the national selectors gave the charge to Rohit as they wanted a common skipper in white-ball cricket. However, Kohli refuted Ganguly’s statement, saying he was informed of the decision just before the Test selection meeting on December 8.

Such things should not have happened: Virat Kohli’s childhood coach.

Contradicting statements from Kohli and Ganguly has left the cricket world divided. Speaking of the entire saga, Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma said he’s shocked by the controversy. “This is definitely shocking and this is news to me as well that Virat Kohli said something like this in the press conference. What comment should I give, about why it has happened and why such a thing should not have happened,” Rajkumar said on India News.

Rajkumar avoided commenting on whether the decision taken by BCCI officials was correct or not. “I would not like to comment too much on this. I will only want to say that they are the authority and whatever decision they have taken, they would have taken it thoughtfully and my statement about this does not hold any significance, whether they have done right or wrong,” he added .

Opining on the contradicting statements from Kohli and Ganguly, Rajkumar said: “This is something unusual I have heard, I didn’t see Virat’s press conference as well. This communication gap should not have happened. According to me, there should be transparency between them and I don’t know why this has happened or why such a communication gap was there.”