Sourav Ganguly, Criticised For Making Rohit Sharma Team India Captain, Fires Back
Rohit Sharma took over as India's captain across the three formats after Virat Kohli's controversial exit as skipper.
The Indian cricket team finally witnessed a high in an ICC tournament as the Rohit Sharma-led side clinched the T20 World Cup 2024 title by defeating South Africa in the final. The accomplishment earned India its first world title since the 2013 Champions Trophy triumph under MS Dhoni. While Virat Kohli had failed to earn India an ICC title as captain, Rohit brought the much-deserved success while leading the side. However, it wasn't all well in the Indian cricket spectrum when Rohit had taken over the team's captaincy from Virat. In fact, Sourav Ganguly, the then BCCI president, had received plenty of hate for the move.
As entire India celebrates the success of Rohit Sharma as the skipper of the Indian team, Ganguly reminded everyone that it was his idea to give the leadership role to the Hitman.
"I was criticised when I handed over the captaincy to Rohit. And now that we've won a trophy under his captaincy, no one is abusing me. Everyone has forgotten that I made him the captain," Ganguly told Bangla newspaper AajKaal.
While Kohli left India's T20I captaincy himself, he was removed as the ODI captain. Not long after, Virat decided to quit as India's Test captain too, with the BCCI deciding to promote Rohit to the role in all three formats.
The captaincy transition, especially in the manner in which took place, earned Ganguly plenty of criticism, with fans and certain former cricketers criticising the way the matter was handled by the board.
Ganguly, who had to handle plenty of abuse, trolling and questions on social media, upon Rohit's promotion, has now decided to send a reminder to those who are celebrating India's T20 World Cup triumph but were criticising him.
After India won the T20 World Cup, both Rohit and Virat decided to quit T20 international cricket. India would now have a new captain in the shortest format, but Rohit will continue to lead in ODIs and Tests.
India Cricket Team
Rohit Sharma
Virat Kohli