Virat Kohli was given 2 days to resign as ODI captain before BCCI announced Rohit as his successor: Report

On Wednesday (December 8), the BCCI announced Rohit Sharma has the new Team India ODI captain, replacing Virat Kohli. The news came in the form of a tweet from BCCI's official Twitter handle, shocking many. BCCI tweeted saying, "The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward" after revealing India's 18-man Test squad for the South Africa tour.

Usually a press conference is held for such big announcements. However, the sudden turn of events surprised many. It is now being reported that Kohli was given a 48-hours ultimatum by the Indian cricket board to announce his decision to step aside as ODI captain. Failing to do the same, BCCI made the decision officially with Rohit taking over from Kohli, as per a report in PTI.

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Things not ideal between Kohli and his players? 

Back in September, when Kohli had announced his decision to leave T20I captaincy, another PTI report had claimed that the talismanic batsman had 'lost respect' as a leader, mainly due to his lack of communication within the team.

"The biggest problem with Virat has always been trust issues. He speaks about clear communication but where he had lost respect as a leader is lack of communication," an unnamed player from Team India had told the news agency a couple of years back.

For the unversed, the 33-year-old Kohli had earlier stepped down as India's T20I captain post the World Cup in the UAE. Since then, many believed his future as ODI captain was also under dark clouds and the inevitable decision was finally taken on Wednesday evening. Under him, India played the final of 2017 Champions Trophy and reached the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI WC in England and Wales. 

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It is also being reported that current head coach Rahul Dravid also played a role in promoting Rohit as the captain in white-ball formats. All eyes are now on Rohit, who is India's limited-overs captain (and also promoted as vice-captain in Tests), to succeed Kohli and take the team to greater heights under his leadership.