Inside Story of Kohli Vs BCCI: Communication gap or row over white ball captaincy, what led to goof-up

New Delhi: India Test captain Virat Kohli opened up over Rohit Sharma replacing him as Team India’s new ODI captain in a press conference. Making some sensational claims, Kohli said that no prior communication happened between him and the selectors before he was removed as the skipper of the ODI team. Kohli went on to claim that, he was just contacted one and half hours ago before the selection meeting on December 8.

The chief selector discussed the Test team to which we both agreed Before ending the call, I was told the 5 selectors decided that I would not be told that I will not be ODI skipper. Which I replied ‘okay fine’, Kohli further said.

These claims completely contradict the statements made by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly as Dada earlier mentioned that he had personally spoken to Virat about the Rohit Sharma replacing him as the new ODI captain.

Not only this, but Kohli also contradicted Ganguly’s ‘asked Virat to not step down from captaincy in T20Is’ statement.

Ganguly had further mentioned that Kohli was asked to not step down from captaincy in T20Is, but Kohli contradicted that too as he said that his decision of stepping down from T20I captaincy was well received by the Indian cricket board.

Clearing air over his availability for the ODI series 

Virat Kohli cleared the air over his availability for the ODI series vs South Africa, he said, “I was and I am available for selection all this time.”

“You shouldn’t be asking me this question honestly, you should ask the people who are writing about the things based on their sources because as far as I am concerned, I was always available,” Kohli told ANI

“I didn’t have any communication with BCCI to say that I want to rest. So there were a few things that came in the past as well where it was said I was attending some event or something which was also not true either. So all these people who were writing all these things on their sources to me they are absolutely not credible. So as I said I am available for selection in ODIs for South Africa and I was always keen to play,” he added.

‘Logical decision’, says Virat over his removal as ODI skipper

In the presser, Virat said, “I can understand why, the reason, we haven’t won an ICC tournament. Whether the decision they took is right or wrong, there’s no debate. It’s a logical decision which I understand,”

What Kohli said over his rift with Rohit Sharma?

Kohli said that there is no strain between him and Rohit and he has now gotten tired of clarifying things.

”I can guarantee you that my communication will never be to take my team down till I am playing cricket. It is my commitment towards Indian cricket,” said Kohli

My responsibility is to push Team India in the right direction and both white-ball skipper Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid will have my full support, he added