NewDelhi Dec 9 : In a massive announcement, the BCCI has named Rohit Sharma as the new ODI captain of the Indian cricket team. He will take over from his predecessor Virat Kohli starting the three-ODI series against South Africa in January 2022.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr. Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” the BCCI tweeted on Thursday.
The announcement comes on the day the board announced India’s squad for the three Test series starting December 26. Several floating reports in the media suggested that the change in guard was inevitable, before the board decided to end the suspense with a tweet.
Rohit, who took over as India’s T20I skipper after the T20 World Cup, led in the recently-concluded three T20I series against New Zealand, which the home team comfortably won 3-0. With Kohli already stepping down as India’s T20I captain, it was only a matter of time before Rohit took over as the team’s limited-overs captain. He was also promoted as India’s vice-captain in Tests, the deputy to Kohli, taking over from an out-of-form Ajinkya Rahane.
Rohit has less than a year to prepare for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year, which will be followed by the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023. With the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid partnership taking over, the two upcoming ICC events promise to be the biggest challenge for Team India, especially after their poor show in the T20 World Cup, where the team failed to reach the semi-final – the first time it had happened at an ICC event in eight years.
Rohit has led India in 10 ODIs, out of which the team won eight. The biggest achievement of Rohit’s ODI captaincy came in 2018, when in Kohli’s absence, India won the Asia Cup in the UAE, beating Bangladesh in the final. The team won all its league matches, barring a thrilling tie against Afghanistan.