Salman Butt Feels Virat Kohli's Performance Will Improve After End Of ODI Captaincy

Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt feels Virat Kohli's performance will only get better after BCCI announced on Wednesday that Rohit Sharma will now lead India in both ODIs and T20Is. Having officially led the T20 team during the series against New Zealand last month, Rohit will kick start his reign as a full-time white-ball captain during the forthcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. He has also been named as India's vice-captain in Tests, replacing Ajinkya Rahane. "There is no element of surprise here. It's a good thing because you will see Virat Kohli's performance getting better because he was extremely overworked. Like I said, this doesn't come as a surprise to me. It was on the cards. It doesn't make sense anyway if he's only the T20 captain. It makes sense to segregate between red ball and white ball to reduce the pressure on a certain player," Salman Butt said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

"India doesn't not play a lot T20Is; they mainly play ODIs and Tests. In order to reduce workload (off Kohli), the entire white-ball captaincy had to go one way," he further explained.

For the record, Kohli had said that he would continue to lead India in ODIs and Tests after stepping down as T20I captain following the T20 World Cup in the UAE.

"I feel I need to give myself space to fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket," Kohli had said.

However, with the 50-over World Cup scheduled to be held in India in 2023, the selectors seemed to have taken the decision to appoint Rohit as full-time white-ball skipper.

"And as it is, the volume of cricket that India plays is very high. The pressure is even higher when all eyes are on him and people only talk about him not scoring runs.

"For people, him scoring 50s did not amount to anything. I reckon this was a perfect exchange with Rohit Sharma," the former Pakistan opener said.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Rohit Sharma Salman Butt South Africa vs India 2021/22 Cricket Virat Kohli