“Don’t jump into conclusions without official word,” Sunil Gavaskar not sure about credibility of Rohit-Kohli rift

A number of media reports have suggested all is not well in the Indian camp

AbhishekWednesday December 15, 2021

93 2 minutes read

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The former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar has said till the time BCCI doesn’t officially communicate on the ongoing situation of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, he won’t believe any rumor or news report circulating in the media because it’s the question of two players who have served the country with excellence.

The news reports were circulating yesterday that Virat Kohli had asked BCCI to give him a break after the test series on South Africa tour and he didn’t want to play the ODIs. It was later confirmed by the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal himself that a break was indeed requested by the former Indian ODI captain.

Even the HCA president Mohammad Azharuddin, who is also a member of the working group of BCCI, tweeted that Virat Kohli has informed the board he wouldn’t be available for the ODI series in South Africa, which is now only going to fuel the speculations of a rift between him and Rohit.

But, according to Gavaskar, who was talking to India Today, whatever Azharuddin tweeted is still only half the information. If he knows something from his sources in the board, then he should come out and share the complete information. Unless and until complete information is there, the benefit of the doubt should go to the concerned players because the players have themselves never confirmed there is any rift between them.

Sunil Gavaskar himself has been through captaincy controversies

Sunil Gavaskar has himself been in situations like this before when constant rumors of a rift between him and Kapil Dev were there in the media for a long period of time in the 80s. Kapil Dev took over the captaincy from Gavaskar and captained India to a World Cup glory in 1983, but he was sacked only a couple of years later, as Gavaskar took over again and India won the World Championship of Cricket under him in 1985.

Another controversy surrounding the captaincy had erupted in Indian cricket back in 2005 when the then Indian head coach Greg Chappell wanted Sourav Ganguly out of the side and Rahul Dravid as the new captain, which eventually happened, but not without a major controversy and a huge mess in the Indian cricketing set-up.

Chappell himself was later sacked as the Indian coach after the 2007 ODI World Cup debacle and Dravid also stepped down from captaincy, with MS Dhoni taking over both the ODI and T20I side in 2007-08. It remains to be seen where the Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli controversy eventually ends.