Gautam Gambhir, a former Indian batter, is not afraid to express his views, and he recently spoke out against one of the most contentious issues in cricket over the previous two months: the apparent split between former Indian captain Virat Kohli and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
Even though Virat Kohli had previously stated that he would step down as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup in 2021, it came to an abrupt end with Kohli being stripped of his position as India’s ODI captain by the selectors, with Rohit Sharma being named as the country’s white-ball skipper in both formats.
Kohli said that he had not been notified of his dismissal from the ODI leadership earlier, and Ganguly expressed his displeasure with Kohli’s admission, which resulted in an argument between the two.
With all of the attention focused on the subject, India lost the Test series against South Africa 1-2 and Kohli stood down as captain of the longer format, which came as a complete surprise to everyone.
It was an excellent TRP for a large number of new channels: Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir Talks About Sourav Ganguly-Virat Kohli Rift
Gautam Gambhir said that the Kohli-Ganguly divide was one of those matters that should have been addressed internally and that it does not seem to be a significant enough issue in terms of depth. He went on to say that despite the build-up that has occurred over the previous two months, he does not believe there will be any controversy around the subject and that he expects it to have a simple conclusion.
“I believe that this might have been resolved behind closed doors as well. It was like a war. It was a fantastic TRP for a lot of news networks. If you get down to the root of the problem, you will find that it could have been simply resolved. The situation was not a major concern,” Gautam Gambhir said during an interview with Times Now.
A specific mention was made by Gautam Gambhir of Kohli’s leadership in the red-ball format, and he expressed his belief that Kohli should not have stood away from the captaincy job in the lengthier format. India is yet to pick a Test captain, with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul being the leading candidates for the position.
“In all honesty, I don’t see any controversy being sparked by this. When it comes to leadership, I believe Virat should have retained his position as red-ball captain. However, in terms of white-ball leadership, once he decided to step down as T20I captain, he was also required to step down as ODI captain. The BCCI and the selectors were correct in their assessment of the white-ball situation. Although Virat’s personal choice to walk away from Test leadership was regrettable. However, he should have continued,” said Gautam Gambhir.
