Head coach of the Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid finally broke his silence on the white-ball captaincy row between Virat Kohli and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Dravid remained tight-lipped on the issue, saying that he felt it was the role of selectors, and that he didn’t feel that it was right to discuss ‘internal matter’ in the media.
Kohli, who caused a storm following his sacking as the ODI skipper gave a contrasting account of events that happened after he decided to step down as skipper of the T20I cricket team. While BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said that he had requested Kohli not to relinquish the captaincy in T20Is, the 33-year-old revealed that nobody asked him not to do the same.
The contrasting words of Team India’s skipper and the BCCI president revealed an underlying issue between the two parties. Dravid though decided not to dwell on the issue further, adding that he has had the ‘individual conversations’ necessary.
“To be honest, that’s the role of the selectors. Not going to get into conversations I might or might not have had. Not the place or time for that, or for discussing my internal conversations in the media,” Dravid said in the pre-match virtual presser on Saturday.
Furthermore, Dravid praised Kohli for his leadership skills, while wishing the Delhi-born batter good luck for the upcoming challenge.
“Virat’s played a huge role in that. As a player and leader, he’s been fantastic. He’s one of those who really loves Test cricket, hopefully, he has a great series. That will benefit the team,” added Dravid.
India’s first game against the Proteas will be played at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday, with Johannesburg and Cape Town set to host the remaining two games of the series.
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