Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt backed
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s decision to make Rohit Sharma captain for both
T20I and ODI formats. Butt said he found the decision logical.

Butt’s remarks came after BCCI named Rohit
Sharma captain of the Indian ODI team for the upcoming South Africa tour,
without any prior information about sacking Virat Kohli as ODI skipper. Kohli
has earlier stepped down as T20I captain after the T20 World Cup in the UAE.

Also Read: Thank you captain: BCCI’s message to former ODI skipper Virat Kohli

Ganguly has recently said that he requested
Kohli not to give up T20I captaincy. Kohli, however, gave up both Royal
Challengers Bangalore and Team India T20 captaincy in order to concentrate on
longer formats. Rohit Sharma led India to a 3-0 T20I series win against New
Zealand in his first assignment as a captain.

“Even I had mentioned this before. It
doesn’t make sense to have one T20I captain and one ODI captain. And it is not
about the decision of making Rohit Sharma the captain being right or wrong. He
is equally capable and has performed well as a captain. If this has happened with
the understanding that the decision has happened with the idea of taking
pressure off a person to value his batting,” Butt said speaking on his
YouTube channel.

Ganguly
discussed with Kohli before naming Rohit ODI captain

On Wednesday, BCCI named Rohit Sharma
India’s ODI captain, replacing Kohli. Rohit will now lead India in ODIs as
well, with three-match series in South Africa his next assignment. The Mumbai Indians captain has also been named Kohli’s deputy in Tests.

Also Read: Ajinkya Rahane replaced by Rohit Sharma as Virat Kohli’s Test deputy for South Africa tour

Talking about the decision, Ganguly on
Thursday said that the board and selectors made the decision together and that
he and the chairman of selectors even had a word with Kohli regarding the same.

Also Read: Too much leadership: Sourav Ganguly on why Rohit replaced Kohli as ODI captain

“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. So it was decided that Virat will continue as Test captain
and Rohit will take over as the white-ball captain. I as President personally
spoke to Virat Kohli and the chairman of selectors has also spoken to
him,” Ganguly told ANI.

Kohli led India in 95 ODIs and won 65 of
them. However, he failed to lead India to win an ICC title. India lost the 2017
Champions Trophy final, World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in 2019, World
Test Championship final and suffered a ground-stage exit in the 2021 T20 World
Cup.

Backing BCCI’s decision, Butt cited England
Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) decision to name Joe Root Test captain while Eoin
Morgan is leading the national side in limited-overs cricket.

Also Read: Rahul Dravid was not willing to coach Team India, says Sourav Ganguly

“I feel what happened is that board did not
want him to leave T20I captaincy, but because he did leave it, you cannot have
two white-ball captains. I don’t understand that logic. Even Joe Root plays in
ODI cricket, but he isn’t the captain. Don’t see any angle of disrespect here
because I don’t expect this to happen to a player of his calibre,” Butt
added.