Nobody told Kohli to quit T20 captaincy: India chief selector

Indian chief selector Chetan Sharma on Friday said that no one from the BCCI asked Virat Kohli to quit the T20I captaincy. The statement is in contradiction to what the former skipper had said ahead of the South Africa tour. 

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Kohli during a press conference before leaving for South Africa had said that that there was no communication between him and the board and that he was informed about his removal as ODI skipper one and a half hour before the selection meeting for the series. His statement came after BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that the Board had asked the superstar batter to reconsider his decision.

 Sharma on Friday said, “Everyone from selectors to (BCCI) office bearers, convenor of selection meeting and all present told Kohli to wait on T20 captaincy till World Cup got over.”

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“Everyone told him to reconsider and rethink,” he added.

Virat Kohli stepped down as India’s T20 skipper after the T20 World Cup. 

“It was Virat’s decision, nobody told him to quit the T20I captaincy. Once he quit the captaincy of T20I, the selectors have to think because what our thinking was that there should be one captain for the white-ball format because it will be easy for the selectors to plan things. We did inform him regarding this,” said Sharma. 

The chief selector then added that he personally spoke to Kohli about the ODI captaincy. 

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“The decision to appoint new ODI captain was taken by the selectors. As soon as the selection committee reached a decision, I immediately called up to Virat. It was a Test meeting selection, we never wanted to inform him in that selection committee, so that is why I called him when our meeting was over and I told him that this is what selectors think and there should be one white-ball captain. We had a good chat,” he added.

When asked whether there is confusion between the board and Kohli, Sharma said, “There is no confusion. There is no communication problem between the board, selectors, and the players. You can only inform the captain when the selectors are on the same page. I alone cannot take the call, as soon as we reached the decision, we informed Virat Kohli. When the meeting started, it was a surprise for everybody that Virat decided to leave the T20I captaincy. We never wanted any controversy.”