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Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli (Source: Twitter)
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who also served as the India Cricket Board president for a couple of years, clarified that he did not remove Virat Kohli from India's captaincy. Kohli voluntarily stepped down as the T20I captain after the conclusion of the 2021 T20 World Cup, and a few weeks later, he was relieved of the ODI captaincy as well. Rohit Sharma was subsequently appointed as the new captain for India's white-ball teams. Kohli expressed during a press conference that he was not informed about the decision to remove him from the ODI captaincy.
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During that period, there was a widespread belief that Ganguly played a part in Kohli stepping down from the captaincy. However, the former India captain has reiterated his position by stating that he had no involvement in Kohli's captaincy situation. The 51-year-old clarified that he did not remove Kohli and disclosed the rationale behind Virat Kohli's choice to resign as the white-ball captain.
"I didn't remove Virat from the captaincy. I have said this a lot of times. He was not interested in leading in T20Is. So, after he made that decision, I told him, if you're not interested in leading in T20Is, it's better if you step down from entire white-ball cricket. Let there be a white-ball captain and a red-ball captain," Ganguly said on the reality show Dadagiri Unlimited Season 10.
Kohli is India's most successful Test captain
In January 2017, the former skipper assumed the role of India's ODI and T20I captain following MS Dhoni's decision to step down as the white-ball captain. During Kohli's captaincy, India reached the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy, experiencing a 180-run loss to archrivals Pakistan. They also made it to the first semi-final of the 2019 ODI World Cup, where they were defeated by New Zealand.
In a surprising turn of events, Kohli shocked everyone in January 2022 by stepping down from India's Test captaincy after being removed from the ODI captaincy. Kohli, who holds the record as India's most successful Test captain, led the team to victory in 40 out of 48 Test matches under his leadership.