"We always wanted Virat to captain but.."- Sourav Ganguly finally breaks silence on Virat Kohli's captaincy saga in 2022

Sourav Ganguly was the BCCI president when Virat Kohli stepped down as test skipper in January 2022.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has revealed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wanted Virat Kohli to continue as test captaincy in 2022, but the latter didn’t agree. Kohli was the all-format skipper of the Indian Cricket Team before Rohit Sharma.

The right-handed batsman stepped down as the T20I skipper after the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, after India’s first-round exit from the tournament. Then the BCCI appointed Rohit Sharma as the new T20I skipper. However, they removed Kohli from the ODI captaincy too as they wanted a same captain for both white-ball teams.

Ahead of the South Africa tour in 2021-22, Kohli expressed his disappointment over the matter in a press conference and revealed that he was informed about the ODI captaincy snub just one and a half hours ahead of the team’s departure for the South Africa test series. Later, Kohli also stepped down as the test skipper after India suffered 2-1 defeat to the Proteas in the test series.

BCCI wanted Virat Kohli to lead test team, reveals Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly, who was the president of the BCCI during that period, was slammed for his actions by many Kohli fans. During an interview with PTI, Ganguly has shed some light on the controversy. He said that the BCCI always wanted Kohli to continue as the test skipper, but the latter did not want to continue with the role.

“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,” Ganguly said.

Ganguly also revealed that Rohit Sharma didn’t want to take up the test captaincy due to the huge workload.

“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,” the 52-year-old said.

“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,” he further added.

Notably, Sharma became the skipper of India across all three formats after Kohli. He led the team to title wins in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Under Sharma’s captaincy, the Indian Team also finished as runners-up in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

Meanwhile, Sharma and Kohli announced their retirement from test cricket last month. Shubman Gill is the new skipper of India in tests.

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