Sanjay Manjrekar supported BCCI’s decision to remove Virat Kohli from ODI captaincy.© AFP
With fans and experts still divided on Virat Kohli’s removal from Team India’s ODI captaincy, former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar shared his thoughts on the matter. The 33-year-old batter had stepped down from India’s T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup and had expressed his interest to continue as ODI skipper. But BCCI decided to announce Rohit Sharma as the full-time white-ball captain in December. Manjrekar felt the lack of an ICC trophy in Kohli’s cabinet as captain was one of the main reasons behind the move as “fans want to win World Cups”.
On being asked if it was fair of Kohli to be unhappy about his removal from ODI captaincy, Manjrekar said, “Fans want India to win world cups; it’s no longer about series or rankings. So, he must have seen he’s struggling a bit,” Manjrekar told News18.
Kohli also stepped down from Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy after IPL 2021.
“RCB captaincy had a role to play. He felt on his own there is no harm in quitting the T20 captaincy, but he was sure he would have continued in ODIs and Tests”, he stated.
Manjrekar also explained that the surroundings around Kohli is “changing” which prevented him from being able to “sustain”.
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“But what has happened after that is clearly because of the scene around him changing, him getting a vibe that he wasn’t going to be able to sustain”, he further added.
Kohli also quit India’s Test captaincy after their recent 1-2 red-ball series defeat to South Africa. The BCCI hasn’t announced a new Test captain yet with many feeling it could be either Rohit or KL Rahul.
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