Everyone in the meeting told Virat to continue as a captain for the sake of India – Chetan Sharma

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The Indian Chief Selector, Chetan Sharma revealed on Friday (31 December) that the decision to leave the ODI captaincy was taken by Virat Kohli’s panel following the decision to quit from the captaincy of the T20I’s.

The Indian Chief Selector, Chetan Sharma revealed on Friday (31 December) that the decision to leave the ODI captaincy was taken by Virat Kohli’s panel following the decision to quit from the captaincy of the T20I’s.

Chetan Sharma also cleared the fact that everyone present in the meeting including the selectors and the BCCI president Saurav Ganguly to reconsider his decision.

“The selectors decided to have one white-ball captain,”

Chetan said on the sidelines of the squad announcement for the three-match ODI series in South Africa.

“It was a hard decision, but selectors have to take hard decisions. You take hard decisions even while making the Playing XI. I know Virat is an important player for us in the coming days and coming years.”

Chetan said that Kohli’s retirement from the T20Is captaincy just ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup shocked the selectors, the BCCI officials present at the meeting as well his fans.

The former Indian captain had denied the fact that anyone had discouraged him to leave the captaincy of the shortest format and just hours after that BCCI president Saurav Ganguly admitted to having done it.

“When the meeting started, it was a surprise for everyone. With the World Cup coming up, that news surprised us,”

Chetan said. 

“Everyone in the meeting said that you should think about your decision and we can speak about it after the World Cup. We all felt that it will affect the [performance at] World Cup. It was told to Virat, for the sake of the Indian team, please continue as the captain.

“Everyone present there said that – the selectors as well as the board officials who were there… He has his fans. We respect him if he has taken a decision, but back then everyone asked him to think about it.”

The member of the selection panel further added that Kohli had once decided to give up the T20I captaincy for which the selectors had called him on his ODIs future as well which they informed him in a meeting among themselves.

“As soon as the selection committee came to the point (of having one white-ball captain), I called up Virat in the afternoon. Because it was a Test selection, we didn’t want him to inform him in the selection meeting. After the meeting, we informed him that there will be one white-ball captain. We had a good conversation and he agreed with us.”

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