New Delhi: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) treasurer Arun Dhumal rubbished Monday reports of Virat Kohli stepping down as India’s limited-overs skipper after the T20 World Cup. A section of the media had earlier reported Monday that Virat Kohli will step down as skipper from the white ball games. He will continue leading the Indian side in Tests while Rohit Sharma would captain the team in the limited overs games.
Dhumal however, said that the board has not discussed anything on this matter. He informed that Kohli will continue to captain the team in all formats. “This is all rubbish. Nothing as such is going to happen. This is all media creation,” Dhumal was quoted as saying by ‘NDTV’. “BCCI has not met or discussed anything on this issue,” he added.
So far Kohli has lead India in 45 T20 Internationals (T20Is) and 95 ODIs. Under him, India have won 27 T20Is and 65 ODIs.
The T20 World Cup will start October 17 and end November 14 in the UAE and Oman. India will open their campaign October 24 against arch rivals Pakistan in the first game of Super12 Group 2 stage. India have been kept in the pool comprising Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan. Two more teams that will qualify from Round 1 will join them.
The first semifinal will be played in Abu Dhabi November 10 while Dubai will host the second semifinal on the next day. Both semis will have reserve days. The final of T20 World Cup is set to be played November 14 in Dubai with November 15 kept as a reserve day.
India recently named their squad for the marquee event and announced the appointment of former captain MS Dhoni as the team’s mentor for the tournament.
The report also said that Kohli would like to concentrate on his batting and that is one of reasons why he would be giving up captaincy in white ball cricket. The reports mentioned that Kohli and Rohit have had long discussions on the matter.
