Virat Kohli’s future as the Indian team ODI captain will be decided this week when the BCCI selection committee gets together to pick the squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa which begins later this month.
The BCCI top brass has said that India’s tour of South Africa remains on schedule, where India plays 3 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 4 T20I matches. However, the board has a keen eye on the situation surrounding the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron in that country.
India is scheduled to play only 9 ODIs in the next seven months including the three against the Proteas as 2022 is to be dominated with T20I matches with another T20 World Cup to be held in Australia.
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Virat Kohli had stepped down from India’s T20I captaincy before the start of the T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE, and with the Men in Blue failing to reach the knockout stages, many believed that his days as white-ball captain were numbered.
With only 9 ODIs to be played in 2022, many feel Kohli should continue as 50-over captain, but others feel that there is no need for two white ball skippers and Rohit Sharma should be given enough time to prepare a potent team that could be serious title contenders for 2023 ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in India.
It is understood that there are strong arguments for both theories but the final call on Kohli’s fate as ODI skipper will be taken by president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.
“The Indian squad will be announced in the next few days’ time. We will have everything ready from our end and then wait for the government’s nod. If the government tells us to abort the trip, then we would, but we need to keep the squad selected and ready,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on Wednesday.
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Also since there is expected to be only one bio-bubble in South Africa, the selectors might pick one jumbo squad across formats, with the strength of anywhere from 20 to 23 players.
While the entire 3-Test series is on as of now, here is some talk in the periphery about the three-Test series being curtailed by a match.
“We will know in a few days’ time if the series would become a two-Test affair rather than three but there has been some back and forth discussions,” a local commentator said on air on YouTube while calling India ‘A’ vs South Africa ‘A’ second ‘Test’ in Bloemfontein.
(PTI inputs)
