Last Updated on 3 years by Charbel Coorey

Cricket News: Twitter reactions: Rohit replaces Virat as ODI captain | Rohit Sharma announced as new India ODI skipper, replacing Virat Kohli

Late evening on 8th December 2021, BCCI announced India’s Test squad for their tour to South Africa. At the end of that press statement was a little note, which did not come as a surprise to some, but was a massive development. The BCCI did what they do best, as they announced it with no professionalism and very little regard for the fans. 

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward.” 

This means Rohit Sharma will take over the captaincy against South Africa in a three-match series which begins after the Test series. There has been so much speculation and even accusations thrown around on social media and in the media channels in general about this whole situation.

But you can expect there to be no rift in the actual team as everyone present are thorough professionals and will always act in the best interest of the team. The Indian team at the moment is currently made up of players who have been in the setup for quite a while now. 

But once the smoke clears, an ardent cricket fan will see the positives of this announcement. This now means that Virat Kohli, the ODI player of the decade from 2010-2020, can just go out there and bat. He can bat and start scoring hundreds again; he can bat and start breaking more records without worrying about captaining.

The next immediate record would be to score his 71st hundred and equal Ricky Ponting to stand second on the list of most international tons. Fans would expect this to happen in the ODI series itself, but with no added pressure of the white-ball captaincy, his red-ball game might be elevated to a whole new level as well. 

Rohit replaces Virat, India’s most successful ODI captain

Virat Kohli has been the most successful 50-over captain India has ever had. His record as a captain and a batter while he has been captain speaks for itself. 

But there is a general notion in cricket that captaincy affects your skill to some extent. But that was definitely not the case for a player like Virat Kohli. His batting record as captain is unparalleled. 

There are not many faults you can find in Virat Kohli as a captain, the only big missing piece from his captaincy record is a major trophy which India haven’t been able to get their hands on since their 2013 ICC Champions Trophy victory. 

Under Virat, India played two 50-over global tournaments in which they finished runners-up in the Champions Trophy in 2017 and bowed out in the semi-finals to NZ in the World Cup in 2019. For many countries and captains that record would be something to target, but for Kohli and India, it was not very well received by the BCCI and the fans. 

Nonetheless, over his four years as a full-time 50-over captain, Kohli provided Indian fans with countless memories as a batter and skipper. The 2018 Virat Kohli was on a different level across formats. In the one day format, Virat Kohli scored 1202 runs at an average of 133.55 with six hundreds to his name in 14 innings. 

Now as Virat Kohli will step onto the field as just another player in the team, fans would be yearning for Kohli to wound back the clock and step into 2018 and just keep batting and batting.