Reports: BCCI sacked Virat Kohli after he refused to step down as ODI skipper

When Virat Kohli had revealed his decision to step down from captaincy in T20Is, he said he would like to continue being the Test and ODI captain. However, India's average show in the 20-20 World Cup brought Kohli’s ODI leadership under scrutiny.

On Wednesday (December 8), when BCCI announced India's squad for the Test series against South Africa, they confirmed that Rohit Sharma will be the ODI captain going forward. There is no confirmation if Virat Kohli has stepped down from the post or the BCCI has sacked him as skipper. However, if certain reports are to go by, the board had given 48 hours to Virat Kohli to vacate the post which Kohli didn't after which the board sacked him and named Rohit as skipper.

Notably, similar reports had emerged when Kohli had stepped down as T20I skipper. However, BCCI later clarified that they had no influence over Kohli decision to step down. Kohli has not commented on the development yet and a clear picture will be out when he speaks on the matter.

Kohli has been one of the most successful captains for India in the ODI format. He took over the reins from MS Dhoni in 2017 and took Indian cricket to great heights by winning series in SENA countries. A lot of young players like Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant flourished under Kohli’s ODI captaincy. He led the team in 95 matches winning 65 of those. However, he failed to lead the team to a win in global events.