This could be a blessing in disguise: Ravi Shastri on ODI captaincy row

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has finally broken his silence on the recent controversy surrounding Virat Kohli and the way the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sacked him as the ODI captain earlier this month.

Kohli was removed from the post just before the South Africa tour as the selectors did not want to have two captains in limited-overs cricket after he had already stepped down as T20I skipper and Rohit Sharma took over.

Kohli wanted to continue leading in ODIs and Tests, something which the selectors did not support and removed him from the one-day job. And Shastri feels that this move could prove to be a “blessing in disguise for Kohli and Rohit both”.

“It’s the right way to go. This could be a blessing in disguise for Virat and Rohit. For one guy to handle all 3 is not easy at all in this time of living in and out of bio-bubbles because of Covid.

“Virat can focus on red-ball cricket and lead for as long as he wants to lead in Tests. It will allow him to sit back and think on his game because he’s got a good 5-6 years left in him,” Shastri said on Star Sports.

When Kohli spoke to the media 10 days back about the change in captaincy, it snowballed into a huge storm as he had openly contradicted claims of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly that he was asked to continue as T20 captain as there can’t be two white ball captains.

Kohli had said that no one in BCCI told him not to quit the T20 captaincy and it created an ugly controversy. Even Shastri felt that the situation could have been handled better if the two parties communicated properly with each other.

“Virat has given his side of the story, it needs the board president to give his side of the story. With good communication, the situation could have been handled better,” Shastri said earlier this week.