"Unnecessary": Pragyan Ojha Reacts To Team India's White-Ball Captaincy Controversy
Pragyan Ojha termed the controversy surrounding India's white-ball captaincy as "unnecessary".
Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday addressed the media for the first time since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) replaced him with Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. Kohli addressed a virtual press conference ahead of the South Africa tour, where he took questions relating to the captaincy swap between him and Rohit in the white-ball format. Kohli's statements contradicted the version of events put forth by the BCCI top-brass and escalated the controversy surrounding the issue. Former India cricketer Pragyan Ojha reacted to the controversy saying he hoped that Team India's focus would be back on their work.
"Unnecessary! Hope the focus will be back on work. #IndianCricket," Ojha wrote in Hindi on social media platform Koo.
Kohli said that the BCCI informed him about the captaincy change just 90 minutes before the selection of the Test squad for the South Africa tour.
"I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before selection for Tests. The chief selector discussed with me the Test squad. Before the call ended, I was told that the five selectors have decided that I won't be ODI captain anymore. There was no prior communication about this," said Kohli.
"I gave the reasons why I wanted to quit T20 captaincy and my view point was received very nicely. There was no offence, no hesitation and not for once was I told that 'you should not leave T20 captaincy'," Kohli added.
Kohli's statement contradicts the one made by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. Earlier, Ganguly said that he had personally spoken to Kohli not to give up the captaincy in the shortest format.
"...Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats," Ganguly told ANI.
Kohli will continue to lead India in Test and next month's South ODI series will be Rohit Sharma's first as full-time limited-over captain.
India Cricket Team
Virat Kohli
Rohit Sharma
Pragyan Ojha