Virat Kohli's reign as captain of the Indian team came to sour end in the 2021 after he was removed as skipper of the ODI side. Kohli, who had taken over the leadership baton from the legendary MS Dhoni, announced his decision to step down as T20 captain after the T20 World Cup in Dubai following which the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI stripped him of ODI captaincy in December later that year. The whole episode had to speculations of a feud between Kohli and Ganguly.
Following Team India's defeat to Australia in the WTC Final last week, Ganguly finally broke his silence on the whole Kohli captaincy saga.
The former BCCI president revealed that he was as surprised as anyone when he first heard the news of Kohli stepping down from his role.
He also emphasised that the BCCI had not asked Kohli to step down as T20 captain.
"No (on the board's preparedness on Kohli giving up Test captaincy). Not after the South Africa series. I don't know (why he did so), only he can tell. After Virat left, Rohit Sharma was the best option available at that time," Ganguly said on Aaj Tak.
Ganguly hailed Kohli for transforming the fortunes of the Test team, having led them to multiple Test series wins in Australia.
"Kohli was a very good captain, India did really well under Kohli & Shastri, India played with a fearless attitude and showed guts in England & Australia. If they had played the Manchester Test at that time, they would've won the series in England as well," he added.
To replace Virat, BCCI had appointed Rohit Sharma as captain of India's ODI and T20I teams.
Kohli, however, also decided to relinquish his Test captaincy after India's 1-2 defeat to South Africa in January 2022.
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