Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli to skip South Africa ODI series: Reports
Mumbai/IBNS: In an interesting turn of events in Indian cricket which is already on boil, Virat Kohli in all probability is likely to opt out of the One Day International (ODI) series against South Africa early next year, reports said.
If this comes true, Kohli, who has recently been stripped of his captaincy in ODIs, will not be seen playing together with Rohit Sharma, who has been ruled out of Test series in South Africa, for now.
Kohli is still the Indian captain in Tests.
According to a report by The Times of India, Kohli has already communicated that he could not play the ODI series as it coincides with his daughter's first birthday.
The development comes following widespread controversy kickstarted after the Indian selectors removed Kohli as ODI captain to hand over the entire leadership of the white ball cricket to Sharma.
Facing the backlash mostly from Kohli's fans on social media, Indian cricket board (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly said Kohli was asked not to leave the T20 captaincy.
As Kohli went on to quit the T20 captaincy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as Ganguly said, went on to appoint Sharma as the ODI skipper to have a single leader in the limited overs game.
"It's a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats," the cricket board supremo told ANI.
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