Virat Kohli to play in ODI series against South Africa, BCCI clarifies

As per media reports, a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official said he had no knowledge of Kohli taking a break in January.

After Sharma was ruled out of the Test series against South Africa over hamstring injury, reports emerged on Tuesday that Kohli is likely to skip the ODI series.

"Yes, Kohli has asked for a small break in January to spend some time with his family. It effectively means that he would miss the ODI series against South Africa," a source has been quoted by InsideSport.

The development comes days after Kohli was stripped of his ODI captaincy, something which had infuriated his fans.

A 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, 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, 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.