Virat Kohli vs BCCI: Will Kohli resign from Test captaincy of India?

Johannesburg, January 3: Has Virat Kohli reached the final chapter of his illustrious career, at least as a captain? It seems so. Kohli missed the second Test, which began on Monday (January 3) against South Africa at the Wanderers with an upper back spasm, and that’s the official version.

But things are not really good post his outburst in the pre-departure press conference last month where he contradicted BCCI chief and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly.

It soon became a Virat Kohli vs BCCI direct skirmish. There were doubts lingering when head coach Rahul Dravid attended the pre-match press conference at Johannesburg on Sunday (January 2) instead of Kohli.

Dravid though said Kohli will attend the press meet ahead of his 100th Test at Cape Town next week. But now, it is not sure that whether Kohli will be even playing in the third and final Test against South Africa.

It may be possible that, Kohli will miss the three-match ODI series too against the Proteas as this is not the first time the Indian captain is troubled by a bad back.

It may be recalled that Kohli had missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru in 2018 and a County cricket stint because if a back niggle.

However, there was no real dwelling into the issue. KL Rahul, who replaced Kohli as captain for the second Test, said Kohli has been suffering from an upper back spasm.

Later, a crisp media from the BCCI indicated as much.

“Team India captain Mr Virat Kohli had a spasm on his upper back this morning. He won’t feature in the second Test against South Africa at The Wanderers.

The BCCI medical team will be monitoring him during the course of this Test match. KL Rahul will captain the side in his absence. The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jasprit Bumrah as vice-captain for the 2^nd Test,” stated the BCCI media release.

As things stand now, Kohli is stranded at 98 Tests and 7854 runs at 50.35. Kohli has made 27 hundreds and as many fifties in Test cricket. Under current circumstances, Kohli might play his 100th Test against Sri Lanka at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in February.

But it cannot be guaranteed that Kohli will be leading the side as him stepping down from Test captaincy too cannot be ruled out. Either KL Rahul or Rohit Sharma could be stepping in to that role.

Rohit missed the tour of South Africa with an injury and is currently recuperating at the NCA in Bengaluru.

Ganguly too had refused to comment on the issue. “Let’s not take this further. This is a BCCI matter and they will deal with it. I have nothing to speak,” Ganguly had said soon after Kohli’s press conference.

It might have appeared a casual, politically correct statement then but right now it has assumed a rather chilling undertone.

Chetan Sharma, the chairman of selectors, too supported the claims of Ganguly and BCCI secretary Jay Shah that they were in touch with Kohli, a claim the Delhiite contradicted.

“We (BCCI) had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain. There was no plan to change captaincy. But he stepped down as T20 captain and the selectors decided not to split limited-overs captaincy, opting for a complete separation,” Chetan Sharma said after the ODI squad for the series against South Africa was announced.