After Rohit Sharma led Team India to victory in the T20 World Cup last month, former captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly hit back at critics.
The legendary cricketer was the BCCI president when Virat Kohli was sacked as the limited-overs captain in 2021. A few weeks later, Kohli also stepped down as the Test captain. Sourav Ganguly had faced severe criticism at the time and many were holding him responsible for Kohli losing the captaincy. Rohit had replaced Kohli as the captain across all formats at that time.
At that time, Ganguly had said that the captaincy change was made after talks with Kohli. However, Kohli had denied the claim, stating that he was forcefully removed as ODI captain. Later, Ganguly had clarified that the board wanted a captain for the white-ball format and that is why Kohli was sacked as ODI captain as well after he stepped down as T20I captain.
Sourav Ganguly hits back:
With Rohit Sharma performing well as captain across formats, Sourav Ganguly has taken the opportunity to hit back at his critics who slammed him for the change of captain three years ago. The former India captain stated that while the Indian cricket fraternity has been busy celebrating the 2024 T20 World Cup win with Rohit, no one remembers that he was the one who appointed Rohit as the captain in the first place.
“When I gave Rohit Sharma the captaincy of the Indian team, everyone criticised me. Now that India has won the T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, everyone has stopped insulting me for it. In fact, I think everyone has forgotten that it was me who made him the captain of the Indian team,” Sourav Ganguly told Ajkaal.
Rohit has enjoyed great success as a captain across formats in recent years. Last year, he led India to the final of the World Test Championship as well as the ODI World Cup. It was India’s first appearance in the ODI World Cup final since 2011. Team India also won the Asia Cup last year.
Last month, Rohit also led the team to glory at the T20 World Cup. This ended India’s 11-year wait for an ICC trophy. Meanwhile, India will soon have a new captain in T20Is as Rohit retired from the shortest format of the game after the T20 World Cup victory.
