'He was reluctant': Sourav Ganguly reveals how he convinced Rohit Sharma to replace Virat Kohli as Test captain
New Delhi: Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has revealed Rohit Sharma was initially reluctant to become India’s Test captain when he approached him to take over the top post following Virat Kohli’s decision to step down from captaincy in 2022. Ganguly said he had to convince Rohit to become the new Test captain of the Indian team.
It all happened in January 2022, when Kohli stepped down as India’s Test captain after the team’s tour of South Africa. Kohli decided to leave Test captaincy after he was sacked as the ODI captain of the Indian team, having already stepped down as the T20I captain a few months back. Kohli was doing well as India’s Test skipper, and his decision to step down shocked many at the time.
Kohli stepped down as India’s most successful Test captain of all time, having led the team to 40 wins in 68 matches as skipper. He remains fourth on the elite list of captains with the most wins in Test cricket history. After Kohli decided to quit captaincy, the BCCI decided to approach Rohit, who was leading India in both ODIs and T20Is at the time.
Ganguly revealed he felt Rohit would be the right choice for captaincy as he already had the experience, having led the Mumbai Indians for several years in the IPL. However, Rohit was reluctant to take over the role due to workload issues. It took some convincing from Ganguly, before the former India captain decided to become India’s all-format skipper.
“We always wanted Virat to be captain, but he did not want to continue. And that’s what it was. And then obviously Rohit came in, he was captaining Mumbai Indians. He was captaining 50-over T20. We needed a test captain because Virat Kohli was Test captain by then and he finished in South Africa. I always believed that Rohit was a very good captain. So obviously the request from the board, I went to him that you know you should captain in test matches. He was reluctant because of workload,” Ganguly told PTI.
“But then I remember having a conversation with him that, you don’t want to finish your career without captaining Indian test matches. So that struck a chord with him, and then he took a couple of days and then he agreed. He’s a very adjustable person, very friendly person, if you have conversations with him, he’ll agree and accept and do things. And why wouldn’t anybody want to be in this test game?,” added the former BCCI president.
Rohit took over as India’s new Test captain from the home series against Sri Lanka in 2022 and led India to the final of the World Test Championship 2021-23, where they lost to Australia. Rohit captained India in a total of 24 Tests, winning 12 matches, losing nine and drawing three of them. Rohit was removed as captain ahead of India’s ongoing tour of England.
Rohit’s future had come under the scanner after India suffered back-to-back Test series defeats against New Zealand and Australia. He decided to retire from Test cricket after being informed that the selectors were looking at Shubman Gill as the new captain in the longest format. Gill took over from Rohit as India’s new Test captain ahead of the England Test series last month.