The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday thanked Virat Kohli for leading the limited-overs team since 2017, a day after he was sacked as ODI skipper.
Rohit Sharma was named as India’s captain “going forward” ahead of the ODI series to be played in South Africa in January. The Mumbai Indians opener had replaced Kohli as the T20I skipper after the latter stepped down from the role following the World Cup.
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Thanking Kohli, BCCI shared his numbers as ODI captain. In 95 games as captain, he won 65 and lost 27. The India No 3’s percentage of 70.43 is the best among all Indian captains. The Men in Blue won 15 out of the 19 bilateral series under his leadership.
“A leader who led the side with grit, passion & determination. Thank you Captain @imVkohli!,” tweeted BCCI on Thursday.
Quitting the T20I captaincy, Kohli had cited workload management as the reason behind the move.
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“Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI cricket,” Kohli had said.
The 33-year-old is currently India’s Test captain. The BCCI announced the squad for the South Africa tour. Rohit Sharma replaced Ajinkya Rahane as the vice captain in the longest format.
Team India are set to play three ODIs and as many Tests in South Africa starting from December 26.
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Talking about Kohli’s importance in the team, Rohit Sharma during YouTube show ‘Backstage with Boria’, said, “A batter of his quality is always needed in the squad. To have an average of 50 plus in the T20 format, it is crazy and unreal. Obviously, with the experience, he batted and bailed India out so many times from difficult situations.”
