It has been seven months since Virat Kohli stepped down as India captain from all three formats but the topic still garners attention. Kohli had announced that he would be resigning as India's T20I captain, but in a cat and mouse game, the BCCI replaced him with Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captaincy as well, the announcement coming via a simple tweet. The entire development caused a huge uproar in Indian cricket with the whole Kohli vs Ganguly saga getting escalated. Then in January, Kohli announced that he was done as India's Test captain as well, officially bringing an end to his captaincy era.
Call it coincidence or plain bad luck, Kohli has been struggling for form ever since. Until last year, the biggest question surrounding Kohli was about him ending his century drought, but things took a turn for the worse as the star India batter started appearing a pale shadow of his former self, struggling for runs and repeatedly falling to the outside off-stump trap.
With Kohli appearing out of it mentally, fans began to wonder whether the BCCI messed up with him so much that it had an adverse impact on his batting, but board treasurer Arun Dhumal has dismissed any such rumours. With Kohli being given constant breaks, many argue if it is the right call, and whether he still fits in India's World Cup plans. To that, Dhumal replied saying that Kohli's selection is entirely up to the selectors.
"See… as far as Virat is concerned, he is not a simple player. He is a great and his contribution to Indian cricket is unparalleled. It is outstanding. So, such conversations (board is trying to sideline Kohli) keep taking place in the media and it does not affect us. We want that he returns to form soon, and as far as team selection is concerned, we leave it to selectors. It is their call as to how they want to go about it," Dhumal told veteran sports journalist Vimal Kumar on his YouTube channel.
{{/usCountry}}"See… as far as Virat is concerned, he is not a simple player. He is a great and his contribution to Indian cricket is unparalleled. It is outstanding. So, such conversations (board is trying to sideline Kohli) keep taking place in the media and it does not affect us. We want that he returns to form soon, and as far as team selection is concerned, we leave it to selectors. It is their call as to how they want to go about it," Dhumal told veteran sports journalist Vimal Kumar on his YouTube channel.
{{/usCountry}}Shedding light on the controversial Kohli captaincy chapter, Dhumal said that the decision was entirely Virat's, and that the BCCI, like everyone, cannot wait for the former India captain to be back at his run-scoring best.
"As far as the issue of captaincy is concerned, it was his call. He decided that mujhe ab nahi karni hai captaincy (that I don’t want to captain). It is possible that someone feels it’s best to do it after the World Cup but that is their point of view. But he wanted to quit, and it was purely his decision. And we respected it. See he has contributed so much to Indian cricket that everyone in the cricket board respects him. We would like to see Virat in action on the ground," added Dhumal.