Definitely think Virat Kohli is annoyed with selectors over ODI captaincy removal – Madan Lal

Former Indian all-rounder Madan Lal reckons Virat Kohli is annoyed with the national selectors after he was sacked as the ODI captain.

Kohli had earlier decided to relinquish his captaincy duties from the T20I format after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup.

Subsequently, the national selectors decided to remove Kohli as the ODI captain as they thought having two white-ball captains wouldn’t be the best of ideas. Ergo, the selectors appointed Rohit Sharma as the new ODI skipper.

In fact, Kohli revealed he was told 90 minutes before the Test selection squad that he wouldn’t continue as ODI captain by the national selectors.

Meanwhile, after losing the Test series against South Africa by 2-1, Kohli surprisingly decided to quit as a Test captain on Saturday. Kohli led India in 68 Test matches out of which the team won 40 matches, lost 17 and drew 11 games. Thus, Kohli was India’s most successful Test captain of all-time.

Madan Lal said while talking to India Today, “It has definitely surprised me that Virat Kohli has left Test captaincy. I think he is still very annoyed with the decision of the selectors or the board when hey said you’re not going to be the captain of the 50-overs side. That I think he still has in mind, he is still thinking ‘why they removed from the 50-over format?’.

“We knew he is going to be the captain for Tests, he was very successful series. I definitely think he is very annoyed with the selectors or the board that he was removed from 50-over captaincy,” Madan said.

On the other hand, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly wrote in his Tweet that Kohli’s decision to step down as the Test captain is personal and the Indian board didn’t play any role in that, as per some of the rumors.

Kohli has been a huge servant as a leader in Test matches and there is no doubt that his aggressive captaincy will be missed in red-ball cricket. However, Kohli can now fully concentrate on his batting in all the three formats of the game.

India will next face South Africa in three-match ODI series.