'In long-term vision, Virat Kohli will not remain the ODI captain as well': Former India opener Aakash Chopra
Chopra believes that due to similarities between both the white-ball forms of cricket, split captaincy would work better if one player leads both ODI and T20I teams, while Kohli leads the Test team.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that the idea to use Virat Kohli as ODI and Test captain, and Rohit Sharma as T20I captain may not work. Kohli, on Thursday (September 16), announced that he would be stepping down as India's T20I captain following the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman - but will continue to lead the team in ODI and Test cricket.
While not officially announced, Rohit, the limited-overs vice-captain, is expected to lead the T20 team after Kohli steps down. But Chopra believes that due to similarities between both the white-ball forms of cricket, split captaincy would work better if one player leads both ODI and T20I teams, while Kohli leads the Test team.
"The division is between red ball and white ball. Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, Aaron Finch and Tim Paine - generally you find that the white ball and Test captain can be different. Split captaincy can happily co-exist but to take the red ball and one white ball and leave the other, I think that's unlikely to work," Chopra said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
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The former India opener said chances of Kohli remaining the ODI captain for long is now slim considering the sameness in the formats.
"The team plays similarly in ODIs and T20Is, there is not too much of a difference. You play the same brand of cricket, what you do in T20Is, you do the same in ODIs but for a little longer.
"The players are almost the same. If you see the Indian team, seven to nine people are the same. You don't see too many changes there. If that is not the case, I feel in the long-term vision, Virat Kohli will not remain the ODI captain as well," he added.
Chopra said Rohit Sharma (the most likely) or whoever the BCCI decides to name as India's T20I captain post this World Cup should be considered for the leadership role even in the ODI World Cup in 2023, which is slated to take place in India.
"Whoever is made the captain now and that is going to be Rohit Sharma, you might want to give the 2023 ODI World Cup captaincy also to him apart from the 2022 T20 World Cup because you want continuity in terms of just the direction," he signed off.
