It seems that Virat Kohli is still upset with his unceremonious sacking as the ODI captain of the team. Ahead of the South Africa tour, a camp was organised for the players in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex before they head into a three-day quarantine. Cricket Age learns that while Rohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant, and a few others attended the camp, Kohli gave it a miss.
Officials claims Kohli was informed about it, but he chose not to turn up. The BCCI official also revealed that several calls were made, but Kohli did not receive them.
“Virat was obviously informed. While all other South Africa bound players arrived, he hasn’t joined the camp. We expect him to join tomorrow. The players will enter a three-day bio-bubble before traveling to Johannesburg,” a senior BCCI official told Cricket Age.
Rohit replaced Virat as India’s new limited-overs captain last week as the selectors decided to make a single leader for the white-ball formats. During his ODI captaincy tenure, Kohli failed to guide India to an ICC title which always put his leadership qualities under the scanner.
However, the 33-year-old will be continuing to captain India in longest format. The Kohli-led Test side is scheduled to depart for South Africa tour on December 16 after undergoing a three-day quarantine in Mumbai. The first of the three Tests starts in Centurion on Boxing Day (December 26).
India’s Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
