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There has been a lot of talk about Virat Kohli's decision to step down as the captain of the Test team. While he had willingly given up on T20I captaincy, he was removed as the ODI captain. However, the general feeling among the fans and experts was that had Kohli not resigned from Test captaincy, he could have easily remained the skipper in the longest format for another few years until a succession plan was ready.
However, in a shocking media report, a BCCI source has claimed that had the 33-year-old not stepped down from Test captaincy, he would have been sacked by the Board after the South Africa tour.
BCCI wanted a fresh start
"Yes, the option was discussed to ask him to step down after South Africa series. Not all agreed to it but a majority were against split captaincy and wanted a fresh start while Virat could concentrate just on batting. Had he not stepped down, he would have been asked to do so," the BCCI official told InsideSport.
A rift between the Board and Kohli was certainly there as was evident from the contrasting statements made by the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Kohli. The former India cricketer had said that the Board has asked Kohli not to leave T20I captaincy but once the latter declined they had no other option but to look at Rohit Sharma as the white-ball skipper, Kohli said that he was never asked to continue as the leader.
Later, Selection Committee chairman Chetan Sharma said that all office bearers were present when Kohli announced his decision to step down from T20I captaincy and he was indeed told to reconsider his decision.
A few reports suggest that Board President Ganguly even wanted to issue a show-cause notice to Kohli for his remark at the press conference prior to the team's departure to South Africa.
The fact of the matter remains that Kohli is no longer the captain in any format and for the good of Indian cricket, everyone is hoping that he finds his exceptional form and fires with the bat in his remaining years of international cricket.