Virat Kohli Press Conference: The Indian team is going to leave for the tour of South Africa on Thursday, 16 December. Earlier, India’s Test team captain Virat Kohli held a press conference and answered many questions. During this, he also revealed that he is available for the ODI series against South Africa. The ODI series is going to start from January 19.
“I am available for the selection of the ODI series against South Africa. I did not talk to the selectors or BCCI officials about not playing the ODI series. Some people I am writing that I do not want to play ODI series due to internal (personal reasons), so let me tell you, their sources are not reliable. However, Dainik Jagran had obtained this information from BCCI sources on Tuesday itself that Virat Kohli is available for the ODI series.”
Virat Kohli said in the virtual press conference organized by the BCCI,
Leave claim rejected:
“On December 8, the selectors and we sat for the selection of the Test team. When the selectors chose the team, I said I want to go with this team. After this five selectors told that we are making Rohit Sharma the captain of the ODI team. I said when this is the decision of you five people then it’s fine.” It was only after this that Rohit Sharma was declared the captain of the limited overs team. When Virat Kohli was asked that you had said before the T20 World Cup that you wanted to captain the ODI team till the 2023 World Cup, what happened that despite your good record, the captaincy was snatched away? In response, he said, “I have already told the BCCI officials that I want to step down from the captaincy of the T20 team and continue to captain the ODI and Test teams. During that time I had also told the BCCI officials that if you think that I can captain the ODI team or if some other decision has to be taken by the selectors and officials, then I will not have any problem.”
It was claimed in media reports that Virat Kohli will take rest from the ODI series after playing the Test series against South Africa under his captaincy. The reason behind this was said to be personal, but in some media reports, it was being claimed that he wants to take leave due to his daughter Vamika’s first birthday (January 11). However, all these reports have been dismissed by Virat Kohli.
India has to play the ODI series against South Africa from January 19 and this will be Rohit Sharma’s first ODI series as a regular captain. Virat Kohli has not played under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma yet. Virat Kohli also praised Rohit Sharma as a captain in this press conference and said that whenever he has captained Team India, his record has been excellent. He has been a great captain in IPL as well. They are great leaders.