“BCCI did Injustice to Virat,” Justin Langer makes a remark on Virat Kohli’s captaincy stint: Former Australia coach Justin Langer praised flamboyant Indian batsman Virat Kohli’s aggressiveness on the field and said that the BCCI did an injustice to the former skipper by not allowing him to continue serving in that capacity in the ODI format.
Langer voiced his strong opinions on the BCCI and Virat Kohli leadership crisis in 2021–2022, which saw the Delhi-born cricketer shift from leading the team in all three forms to none in a matter of few months.
Notably, he made these remarks while Australia and India are competing in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021–23 Final. Langer, who is a member of the commentary team, gushed over Kohli’s love for the game. He also blasted the BCCI for not letting him continue the ODI format captaincy.
The former Australian head coach feels it was a big injustice from the board toward their star man. Langer expressed his opinions regarding the incidents that included Virat, the former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, and the former head of selectors Chetan Sharma during his commentary on Day 1 of the WTC Final.
Justin Langer said, “There was nothing I didn’t like about Virat Kohli. His aggression, his passion, his batting. He was an amazing captain.”
“Loved his (Virat Kohli) aggression. BCCI did an injustice to him, and I do not want to hear anything else. If he wanted to keep the ODI captaincy, he should have been allowed to do that out of respect,” he added.
For those who are unaware, Kohli unexpectedly lost his position as ODI captain in December 2021. Virat stated he would resign as the T20I captain but will remain as the ODI captain before the 2021 T20 World Cup. A few months after that, the BCCI sacked Kohli as captain, and Rohit Sharma was given the reins.
As the BCCI underwent changes to its structure, Ganguly claimed that the BCCI wanted just one captain for both ODIs and T20Is.
As a captain in the 50-over format, Kohli has an outstanding win percentage of 70.43, which included 65 victories in 95 games. Virat also resigned as the Test skipper following the conclusion of the South Africa tour in January 2022.
READ: ICC to move T20 World Cup 2024 to England from West Indies & USA: Reports
Head to ICC’s official website for more details.
