Former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir has always been known for not mincing his word and he recently commented on Virat Kohli’s sudden exit from Test captaincy that had sent the cricket world into a frenzy. The 33-year-old Kohli resigned the leadership after India’s Test series defeat in South Africa. The unexpected resignation of Kohli raised a question mark over his relationship with the BCCI.
Back in November of 2021, Virat Kohli was saved as ODI skipper, a month after he relinquished his position as the T20I skipper. Many pundits have weighed in on the issue and Gautam Gambhir feels the split between Kohli & the BCCI should have been handled in a better way.
Explaining the same during a recent chat with Times Now, Gautam Gambhir said, “I think this could’ve been sorted behind closed doors as well. It was an internal battle. It was a great TRP for a lot of new channels but that’s fine. If you go to the depth of it, the matter can easily be solved. It’s not that big of an issue. Honestly, I don’t see any controversy which was created. Talking about captaincy, I think Virat should have continued as red-ball captain. “
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He further added, “But for white-ball captaincy, once he decided to let go of T20I captaincy, he had to let go of ODI captaincy as well. The BCCI and the selectors were right from the white-ball point of view. But it was Virat’s personal decision to step down from Test captaincy, which he should have continued.”
Kohli’s resignation as Test captain means that his 100th Test against Sri Lanka will be only as a batter, where he would be looking to end his prolonged century drought. He is also a part of India’s limited-overs squad that will take on the West Indies in three ODIs and as many T20Is, scheduled to be commencing on February 6.
On Monday, Virat Kohli explained his approach as a senior team member after stepping down from leadership across the formats. He spoke about how one can contribute to the team even when he is not its leader.
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During a recent conversation on Digit’s ‘Fireside Chat with VK’, Virat Kohli said, “Everything has a tenure and time period. You obviously have to be aware of that. People might say ‘what this guy has done’ but you know when you think of moving forward and achieving more, you feel like you have done your job. Now as a batsman may be you have more things to contribute to the team. You can make the team win more. So take pride in that. You don’t need to be a captain to be a leader.”
