BCCI rushes to laud Virat Kohli after facing backlash over removing him from ODI captaincy

Hours after removing Kohli as the ODI captain, the BCCI took to social media to share a number of posts praising the celebrated cricketer of the country.

Sharing Kohli's statistics as the ODI captain, the official Instagram handle of Indian Cricket Team posted, "A leader who led the side with grit, passion & determination. Thank you Captain @virat.kohli."

In another post, the board lauded Kohli's knock while leading the Indian team for the first time in ODIs.

In another throwback post, the board highlighted Kohli's "terrific knock" against West Indies in 2018.

Kohli, who had earlier stepped down as the T20 captain, was sacked as the ODI skipper on Wednesday.

Hours after facing backlash over an alleged unceremonious end of Kohli's white ball captaincy, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly broke his silence to state the board and selectors together took the call to appoint Rohit Sharma as the full-time white-ball captain of the side replacing Kohli.

Sharma was on Wednesday named India's new ODI skipper and he will take over from Kohli starting with the South Africa series in January next year.

"It's a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats," Ganguly told ANI.

"So it was decided that Virat will continue as Test captain and Rohit will take over as the white-ball captain. I as President personally spoke to Virat Kohli and the chairman of selectors has also spoken to him.

"We have full faith in Rohit Sharma's leadership abilities, and Virat will continue as the Test captain. We as BCCI are confident that Indian cricket is in good hands. We thank Virat Kohli for his contributions as captain in the white-ball format," the BCCI president added.