After Virat Kohli announced that he will step down as India’s T20I captain after the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE and Oman, speculations were rife about what led the Delhi-batter to take this decision.
Now it has come to light that several senior players including ace batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, had dialed the BCCI secretary Jay Shah personally to express their reservations about the way Virat Kohli led the team and his attitude towards other players.
While the situation looked calm before the team left for a long UK tour in the month of June, it is understood that the defeat to New Zealand in Southampton changed a lot of things. New Zealand beat India on the final day of the rain-marred Test match after India’s sensational collapse as they were bowled out for 170.
According to sources, following the batting collapse, some of the batsmen including the likes of Pujara - whose slow strike rate and lack of intent have been questioned previously by the captain - and Ajinkya Rahane (who was enduring a poor run of form) were pulled up by Kohli in the dressing room, which seems to have snowballed into a big issue.
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As per The New Indian Express report, Pujara and Rahane called Jay Shah when the team took a two-week break after the WTC final and the BCCI then intervened. It is understood that only after these phone calls did the BCCI seek feedback from a few other players and decided to act at the end of the tour.
Not only the T20I captaincy but it has been reported that the BCCI will take a call on Kohli’s ODI captaincy as well after the result of the T20 World Cup 2021.
(The New Indian Express inputs)
