I forgot to reply to this...
The unreal hype that Kohli had bestowed upon himself and his teammates, one would have expected him to be among the Top3 in terms of all time run getters in Test cricket. The aggression did win matches- but so did the aggression of Ganguly- to be fair, Ganguly's demeanor was very different as opposed to Kohli's.
Imagine these hypothetical situations:
a) It's 2025, and Kohli takes off his shirt and starts shouting from the balcony at Lord’s.
b) Kohli walks up to Hardik Pandya and slaps him over a poor performance in a match.
Now forget Ganguly or any other player for a moment—how would you react? The level of
unreal hate that Kohli receives for his aggression is completely unjustified. And just to put things in perspective, here’s what the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan has to say about Kohli—his aggression, fitness, and more. It’s all summed up beautifully...
I have a different view point- as captain, you are expected to lead from the front- Virat almost always got the teams he wanted. Depsite that, our results weren't upto the mark. The team was lagging behind in ODIs and T20s owing to the brand of cricket being played. It was imperative that we brought in fresh leadership.
Isn’t it just too convenient to discredit him?
When the team performs well —
he got the players he wanted.
When the team underperforms —
blame it all on his captaincy.
Let’s not forget: Kohli stepped down from T20 captaincy on his own and said he wants to focus on Test and ODI format. But then he was
removed from ODI captaincy, with the reasoning that there couldn’t be two captains for white-ball cricket. Ganguly claimed he spoke to Kohli before that decision — yet Kohli openly stated no such conversation took place. So where’s the transparency & honesty from the BCCI?
Disagree again! They are contracted by the BCCI in the highest grade possible. Others are playing domestic cricket and see no reason why this should be an exception for the super stars.
No one’s arguing that the BCCI doesn’t have the authority to ask contracted players to participate in domestic cricket.
But here’s the real issue:
If Kohli or Rohit were never part of the long-term plans, then why ask them to play domestic matches in the first place?
A more honest and transparent message after BGT would’ve been:
“Hey, as contracted players, we respect your contributions, but we're moving forward with younger players — you won’t be considered for future Test series.”
Had that been communicated clearly, they probably wouldn’t have bothered with Ranji games at all. Instead, what happened? You give them
false hope of a comeback by encouraging domestic appearances, only to turn around after three months and say, “We’ve moved on.”
That’s not planning — that’s poor communication and a lack of respect for legends of the game.
You will have some unfortunate ones missing out for sure. I do not deny with the above- even in the past, we have had players like Amol Muzumdar or Badrinath who didnt get their dues. Not defending, but that is the nature of the game, where not everyone can be accommodated.
So, does that mean you agree the BCCI is at fault here?
Let’s be honest — what exactly did Harshit Rana contribute in the Champions Trophy? Or Varun Chakravarthy in the T20 World Cup in Dubai?
If these players had outstanding seasons and were clearly outperforming the seniors being dropped, I could understand the decision. But when you're picking
average players just to carry drinks and warm the bench at major tournaments, while sidelining proven performers, how is that justified?
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We could go back and forth all day debating how good or bad Kohli is, or how much influence the BCCI has over a player’s career. But honestly, this goes
beyond just Kohli or Sharma.
This is about a much deeper issue — one that affects the very foundation of how players are treated.
There may come a time when a Pandya, a Gill, an Iyer, or even a Bumrah faces the
same fate — not because of performance, but because of the unchecked egos and opaque decision-making of the most powerful cricket board in the world.
