"Personally Requested" Virat Kohli Not To Give Up T20I Captaincy, Says Sourav Ganguly

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has said that he had personally requested Virat Kohli not to give up the T20I captaincy role.

Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), has spoken on the Indian team's controversial limited-overs captaincy shift from Virat Kohli to Rohit Sharma. The board president has said that he had "personally requested" Kohli not to give up the T20I captaincy role. Kohli stepped down as India skipper from the shortest format in September. Three months after Kohli stepped down as T20I skipper, the BCCI dropped the star player as the ODI skipper and named flamboyant opener Rohit Sharma as the new full-time limited-overs skipper.

"It's like I said… I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy. Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket. He has captained for a long period of time and these things happen. Because I have captained for a long period of time; therefore, I know. Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that's why this decision. I don't know what's going to happen in future. But as I said, it's a good team and it has some fantastic players and I hope they will turn it around," Ganguly told News 18.

Kohli had cited workload management as the reason behind his decision to quit T20I captaincy.

"Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI cricket," Kohli had stated at the time.