Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly has made a big revelation while recalling the captain saga, after Virat Kohli stepped down as captain following the tour of South Africa in 2022. Ganguly was taking care of day-to-day operations at BCCI when Kohli was removed from ODI captaincy and was replaced with Rohit Sharma. This happened few months after Kohli resigned as T20I captain, following India’s group stage exit from the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai.

Kohli, while addressing the media before the team’s departure from the Test series in South Africa, said that he was informed by the selectors that he won’t be the ODI captain anymore just one and a half hours before the Test squad for the South Africa series was announced and there was no prior communication on the same from the BCCI.

After lost the Test series in South Africa, Kohli also stepped down as captain of the Test team. Ganguly has now revealed that the BCCI wanted Kohli to continue as Test captain, and that Rohit was also reluctant to accept the job.

“Quite natural, you have one captain for the white ball. 50 over and 20 over. We always wanted Virat to captain but he did not want to continue. Rohit was captaining Mumbai Indians, was captaining 50 overs and T20. We needed a Test captain because Virat was the Test captain till then, but he finished in South Africa. I always believed Rohit was a very good captain. So obviously, a request from the board went to him. He was reluctant because of workload. I remember having a conversation with him that you do not want to finish your career without captaining India in Test matches.”

“He is a very adjustable and friendly person. If you have a conversation with him, he will accept. Who will not want to be India’s test captain. All these conversations were in person. I was a very hands-on board president. Meet players, talk to players,” Ganguly told news agency PTI during an interaction.