Salman Butt Isn’t Surprised By Rohit Sharma’s Appointment As Limited-Overs Skipper Replacing Virat Kohli

Dec 9, 2021 at 5:18 PM

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Salman Butt Isn’t Surprised By Rohit Sharma’s Appointment As Limited-Overs Skipper Replacing Virat Kohli

Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain has weighed on BCCI’s decision to hand over India’s ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma from Virat Kohli.

Ever since the BCCI announced that opener Rohit Sharma will replace Virat Kohli as India’s new ODI captain, reactions from the cricketing fraternity have been pouring in.  The latest member to jump on the bandwagon is former Pakistan captain Salman Butt.

Controversial Pakistan batsman Salman Butt
Controversial Pakistan batsman Salman Butt (File Photo | AFP)

Salman Butt Isn’t Surprised By Rohit Sharma’s Appointment As Limited Overs Skipper Instead Of Virat Kohli Whose Workload Would Be Reduced

Salman Butt welcomed the decision, stating that the former T20I and ODI captain was “overloaded” and the pressure seemed higher than usual due to his century drought. He also added that the board has finally nailed the workload management of its modern-day great.

“This doesn’t come as a surprise to me. It was on the cards. It doesn’t make sense anyway if he’s only the T20I captain. It makes sense to segregate between white between red ball and white ball to reduce the pressure on a certain player.

“India doesn’t not play a lot T20Is; they mainly play ODIs and Tests. In order to reduce workload (off Kohli), the entire white-ball captaincy had to go one way,” explained Salman Butt while speaking in a video on his YouTube channel.

India's Virat Kohli. Credit: Reuters Photo
India’s Virat Kohli. Credit: Reuters Photo

Virat Kohli had led Team India in 95 ODI matches and registered victories 65 times. He is the fourth in the list of most victories by an Indian captain where MS Dhoni leads the tally with 110 wins, followed by Mohammad Azharuddin (90) and Sourav Ganguly (76).

Under his leadership, India won 15 ODI bilateral series out of 19, which also includes victories in difficult conditions in South Africa, Australia, and West Indies. During his ODI captaincy stint, Virat Kohli scored 5449 runs in 95 matches with 21 hundred. Virat Kohli also finished as India’s second-most successful captain in T20Is after MS Dhoni, having led the team in 50 matches, winning 32 of them and losing 16.

Virat Kohli, with a stellar 72.65 ODI average and more than 5,000 runs with 21 ODI hundred in 95 matches, will go down as one of the most accomplished record-holders for an Indian captain.

Salman Butt: Virat Kohli’s Performance May Get Better Because He Was Overloaded

Rohit Sharma, 34, has led India 10 times in ODIs and led them to victories on eight occasions. In T20Is, he has captained them 22 times, of which they have won 18 and lost four, after whitewashing New Zealand 3-0 at home in T20Is after T20I WC.

“Like I said, there is no element of surprise here. It’s a good thing because you will see Virat Kohli’s performance getting better because he was extremely overloaded. And as it is, the volume of cricket that India plays is very high.

“The pressure is even higher when all eyes are on him and people only talk about him not scoring runs. For people, him scoring 50s did not amount to anything. I reckon this was a perfect exchange with Rohit Sharma,” said Salman Butt.

Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma | AFP

Rohit Sharma won’t be new to the role as he has already led the ‘Men in Blue’ in 10 ODIs. Under him, India has won eight of those, including the 2018 Asia Cup in the UAE. Virat Kohli was absent from the tournament in which India beat Bangladesh in a thrilling final.

Rohit Sharma was assigned skipper for the New Zealand bilateral T20I series which India won 3-0 despite the absence of many white ball regulars and would be the skipper in ODIs too for the next South Africa tour.

Rohit Sharma’s first assignment as full-time ODI skipper of the Indian team will be the three-match series in South Africa, which will be played from January 19 to 23. Earlier, Virat Kohli also stepped down as skipper of his IPL franchise – Royal Challengers Bangalore. The IPL 2021 season was his last as RCB skipper where the team was knocked out in the Eliminator.

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