Virat Kohli resigned as the Test captain of Team India a day after losing the Test series to South Africa. South Africa defeated India by 7 wickets in the Cape Town Test to take the Test series 2-1.
After Dhoni's resignation, Virat became the Test captain of Team India in 2015. His resignation comes at a time when the BCCI had removed him from the captaincy of ODIs just a month ago. Earlier in September last year, Kohli surprised everyone by announcing that he would quit the T20 captaincy. This decision of Kohli has surprised both the fans and the cricket experts.
Let's know what is the reason for Virat Kohli suddenly leaving the Test captaincy? Is the dispute with BCCI and rift with Rohit the reason? How was Kohli's record as a captain?
The day after Virat stepped down from the post of Test captaincy, 'Dada', ie Sourav Ganguly, continued to trend on top on Twitter. Some fans were blaming Sourav Ganguly for leaving Kohli's captaincy, while many fans were praising Ganguly for the fact that he reined in Kohli's alleged dictatorship.
It is believed that the issue of Kohli vs Dada has been involved somewhere in this entire controversy. Its hallmark was visible in December last year when the Ganguly-led BCCI snatched the ODI command from Kohli and gave it to Rohit Sharma.
Some experts believe that Virat was definitely hurt by the manner in which BCCI took away the command of ODIs from him. There were public differences between Kohli and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly regarding this decision.
Ganguly had said that he had appealed to Kohli not to give up the T20 captaincy, but he did not agree. In such a situation, BCCI had no option but to remove him from the ODI captaincy, as he did not want to have a separate captain for ODIs and T20s.
Later, Kohli surprised everyone by saying that the BCCI had not discussed him with the captaincy and the information about his removal from the ODI captaincy was given only 90 minutes before the meeting of his selection in the Test team for the tour of South Africa.
On Kohli's decision to step down as Test captain, Ganguly called it his personal decision and said that BCCI respects it. Also, the BCCI thanked Kohli for his contribution, describing him as the most successful Indian captain. Madan Lal, who was a part of India's 1983 World Cup winning team, says he is shocked by Kohli's decision to step down from Test captaincy. He believes that Virat was very angry about being removed from the ODI captaincy.
According to the PTI report, Kohli had a meeting with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, Secretary Jay Shah, the five selectors before leaving the T20 captaincy. Rohit Sharma was also present in that meeting. When Kohli later said that his decision to step down from T20 captaincy was accepted by all, he was referring to this meeting. It was the same meeting in which Ganguly later said that he had appealed to Kohli not to give up the T20 captaincy.
According to this report, in this meeting, Kohli had advocated for KL Rahul to be made the vice-captain in ODIs and Rohit to be made the only T20 captain, but this advice was immediately rejected by the BCCI, as it meant Rohit was not entitled. Despite this, he would have missed the ODI captaincy.
In all this exercise, Kohli had no idea that the BCCI could take away the ODI captaincy from him, but eventually it happened. It was difficult for a player of Kohli's stature to digest it. There was a clear communication gap between Kohli and Ganguly in this entire matter. The rift between Kohli and Dada begins in 2016, when Anil Kumble became the coach of Team India instead of Ravi Shastri on Ganguly's wish, but a year later, Kumble resigned due to differences with Kohli. In 2017, once again the issue of coach was in discussion, but this time despite Ganguly's wish, Kohli's wish followed and Ravi Shastri became the coach of Team India. The relationship between Shastri and Ganguly was never good, so Dada did not like this appointment.
Now that Ganguly took over the reins of BCCI and Ravi Shastri's tenure came to an end, differences emerged between Dada and Kohli on the issue of captaincy.
Kohli left T20 captaincy, Dada removed him from ODI captaincy and now Kohli himself said goodbye to Test captaincy. There have been reports of differences between Kohli and Rohit for the past several years, but the gap seemed to widen in December last year when Kohli lost the ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma.
However, this was not the first time that the Rohit-Kohli controversy made headlines. In many media reports, it was even claimed that the rift between Kohli and Rohit was also one of the main reasons for Team India's defeat in the 2019 World Cup. Even though most experts feel that Kohli has left the captaincy due to some differences or controversy, but one reason is his batting. Kohli's form has declined in the last two years.
It has been more than 26 months since he scored his last century. It is believed that by saying goodbye to captaincy, Kohli now wants to focus his full attention on batting. The reason for leaving the T20 captaincy was also told by Kohli to focus on batting in view of the Test and 2023 ODI World Cup.