Chairman of All India Senior-Selection Committee, Chetan Sharma on Friday (December 31), clarified that the selectors were not in favour of two white-ball captains and that Virat Kohli was not forced to quit as T20I captain.
Earlier in December, Rohit Sharma replaced Kohli as ODI captain after taking over the T20I captaincy post the T20 World Cup. Chetan Sharma backed BCCI President Sourav Ganguly's claim that he and the selectors had requested Kohli to not quit T20I captaincy just before the T20 World Cup.
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"It was Virat's decision, nobody told him to quit the T20I captaincy. Once he quit the captaincy of T20I, the selectors have to think because what our thinking was that there should be one captain for the white-ball format because it will be easy for the selectors to plan things. We did inform him regarding this," said Chetan Sharma during a virtual press conference.
"The decision to appoint new ODI captain was taken by the selectors. As soon as the selection committee reached a decision, I immediately called up to Virat. It was a Test meeting selection, we never wanted to inform him in that selection committee, so that is why I called him when our meeting was over and I told him that this is what selectors think and there should be one white-ball captain. We had a good chat," he added.
When asked whether there is confusion between the board and Kohli, Sharma said: "There is no confusion. There is no communication problem between the board, selectors, and the players. You can only inform the captain when the selectors are on the same page. I alone cannot take the call, as soon as we reached the decision, we informed Virat Kohli. When the meeting started, it was a surprise for everybody that Virat decided to leave the T20I captaincy. We never wanted any controversy."
"Whoever was a part of the meeting asked Virat to consider his decision to leave T20I captaincy, it was asked that for the sake of Indian cricket, consider the decision to leave T20I captaincy as the World Cup was so near. We thought this conversation could have been had after the T20 World Cup, we respect Virat Kohli and his decision. Everybody told him to think about leaving T20I captaincy," he added.
Talking about Kohli, Sharma said: "Virat is a very important player. We want him to play for India and keep scoring runs as the team revolves around him. We just wanted to go forward with one white-ball skipper. It was a hard decision but the selectors have to take hard calls."
"We gave time to Rohit and Virat, they can just get into the system of how to go about things. There is no communication problem at all, the ODI team was selected today. That day we announced the Test team. It was told to Virat to please continue as the T20I captain for the sake of Indian cricket. We were in shock when he announced his intention to step down," he added.
(With ANI inputs)
