Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that the relations between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Indian captain Virat Kohli and former head coach Ravi Shastri weren't great before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE.
Before the start of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE, Kohli had announced that he would step down from the T20I captaincy, while Shastri's tenure as India's head coach was also coming to an end after the global event. After India’s early exit from the T20 World Cup 2021, the BCCI named Rohit Sharma as the new T20I captain and Rahul Dravid as the new head coach of the side.
However, even before the announcement of the new India head coach and T20I captain, there were reports of Dravid and Rohit taking over from Shastri and Kohli after the T20 World Cup 2021, and Inzamam said that everybody in the team already knew about the impending changes, which indicated that things weren't right between the captain-coach duo and the BCCI.
Inzamam said on ARY News: “I said this even before the match, that this statement of leaving captaincy after the tournament… it is not good. You have to play a big event and this shows that there is pressure on you and you are not comfortable. They all knew that after this tournament, Shastri was to get replaced by Dravid.”
On Kohli’s announcement to step down as India’s T20I captain before the T20 World Cup 2021, the Pakistan batting said: “This should not happen before a big event. Your authority gets challenged. And this means that relations between Kohli, Shastri, and the board were not great. If India were to win the T20 World Cup, would they have removed the captain and coach? There was some problem between them.”
He also lauded Shaheen Afridi for his destructive spell (3/31) against India, dismissing KL Rahul, Rohit, and Kohli in the global event in Dubai.
Inzamam concluded, “Our fast bowlers always stamp their authority on India. We have always had a good pace battery. Every team is a little apprehensive about facing Pakistan’s bowling.”
