The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced that Rohit Sharma will replace Virat Kohli as the full-time captain of the Indian ODI squad. After Kohli’s stepping down as the T20I captain post-T20 World Cup this year, Sharma was already crowned with the responsibility of the captain in the shortest format.
At the end of their announcement for India’s Test squad for the upcoming South Africa tour, BCCI said, “The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.” Sharma will play the role of vice-captain in the Test series in SA.
Only three months ago, ahead of the T20 WC, Kohli declared his retirement from the post of captain of the Indian T20 squad pointing out the workload management. On Instagram, he had shared, “Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI cricket.”
Kohli took over the leading role in India’s limited-overs format from MS Dhoni in 2017 and, since then, the team had played 95 ODIs under his captaincy. He won 65 of them with a winning percentage of 68. Under his captaincy, India had reached the final of the Champions Trophy and the semi-final of the World Cup 2019. However, with this latest development, Kohli’s career as an ODI captain will end without winning any major ICC trophy.
On the other hand, Rohit replaced Ajinkya Rahane as the Test vice-captain which is another sign of Rohit’s growing stature in the team. Recently, he concluded his three-match home series against New Zealand as a captain with a clean sweep.
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