The All-India Senior Selection Committee sat down to pick an 18-member squad for the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa starting from December 26th 2021. And they did that. But while they were doing that, they also decided to elevate Rohit Sharma to the ODI captaincy, as told by a press release from the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Just before the recent ICC T20 World Cup, Kohli had announced his decision to step down as India’s T20 captain.
Kohli had then said: “Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI cricket.” But the selection committee has now decided to look past Kohli and in the direction of Sharma to get India the elusive ICC Trophy in white-ball cricket.
Kohli had a superb record in bilaterals but he could not get India across the line in ICC tournaments (2017 Champions Trophy, 2019 ODI World Cup and 2021 T20 World Cup) and that might have counted against him. But we cannot know for sure if this was a unilateral decision or one that Kohli was on board with for now. Sharma, on the other hand, has found his feet in Test cricket and looks well equipped to take India forward in white-ball cricket, given his leadership exposure.