Former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad has backed the BCCI selectors' decision to appoint Rohit Sharma as India’s new ODI and T20I captain amid the criticism over sacking Virat Kohli as the ODI captain of the team.
On Wednesday, December 8, the BCCI All-India Senior Selection Committee appointed Rohit as Team India’s new ODI captain after he was named T20I captain last month, as well as vice-captain of the Test side.
Well, the decision to sack Kohli as ODI captain didn’t go down well with many, but Azad feels it was the right move since the Test skipper wanted to be away from the captaincy in limited-overs.
Azad told ANI: “Well change is constant. This happens Rohit has been doing well and Virat had said that he wanted to be away from the captaincy in limited-overs. So, the right person to get into his place is Rohit Sharma. That's a call by the selectors. Virat wanted it but selectors thought that Rohit Sharma should come in and that's about it. I don't find anything wrong with it.”
He further insisted that the importance of a player is not measured by his captaincy, referring to the sacking of Ajinkya Rahane as Test vice-captain ahead of the South Africa tour.
Azad further explained, “Every game that you play is a different game than the other. Yes, when you compare people you show records you say this guy was better and that guy was better. Somebody has got more centuries than the other but that doesn't mean one is better than the other.”
He signed off by saying, “The importance of a player is not measured by his captaincy. Rahane is a very good player. His form was not good and keeping that in mind selectors have taken away the vice-captaincy. We try to read too much into it.”
(With ANI Inputs)
