Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt has said that he feels there is a dirty game being played against Indian captain Virat Kohli in the media as it was reported that the BCCI is unhappy with some of the decisions made by him during the recent England Test series.

A recent news report went further and said that Virat could be asked to make way for Rohit Sharma as captain if Team India fails to perform well in the ICC World T20.

The former Pakistan captain further said with a successful Test series in England and a crucial T20 World Cup looming, this is not the time to rake up the captaincy debate.

"Do you see the timing of this news? I don't have a problem with what the board thinks, it's about their own evaluation of who can take their cricket forward... but is this the time to discuss these things? Now there's talk of Virat Kohli's captaincy being on the danger line," Butt said in a video on his YouTube channel.

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He added: "He's (Virat) recently played a series in England, led his team really well, he was being criticized for his team selections but he's constantly backing his team and in turn, the team is responding to him and playing good cricket... the team is at the top in every format and the World Cup is right up front, so such news surfacing in the media is nothing but a dirty game."

Salman Butt also compared the captaincies and trophies won by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as captains.

"I have said this before, Rohit Sharma is a very good captain, very successful, but this is not the time to talk about these things... Trophies matter, I agree but see the percentage of the games he has won and how successful he has been around the world. I think this is not the time and the guy has done a lot of good to Indian cricket. This news resurfacing is nothing but bad intent which shouldn't happen,” Butt concluded.

(PTI inputs)