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Former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has opened up on his decision to replace Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma as the captain of the Indian men’s cricket team. Rohit replaced Virat as the full-time captain of India after the latter stepped down from his role in Tests and T20Is in 2022. Back then, Ganguly was the BCCI chief and there were reports of a possible rift between him and Kohli. Ganguly had earlier revealed that the BCCI had asked Kohli to reconsider his decision to step down as T20I captain.

On the decision to replace Kohli, the former India captain Ganguly said that he saw huge potential in Rohit, considering his record in the Indian Premier League.

Rohit took India to the World Cup final last year on home soil, only to go down in the final hurdle against Australia.

Ganguly suggested that India were the best team in the tournament and added that he was not surprised by the way Rohit led India during the showpiece event.

“Look at the way he captained in the World Cup. Taking India to the final. I think India was the best team in the competition till they lost the final. So he is a good captain, IPL trophies. I am not surprised by the way he led. He became the captain when I was the BCCI president, and I am not surprised by the way he has led the team. I made him the Indian captain because I saw the talent in him, and I am not surprised by what he has done,” Ganguly told RevSportz.

Rohit recently led India to a 17th straight Test series win on home soil. After losing the series opener against England in Hyderabad, India now lead 3-1 in the series with the final game in Dharamsala from March 7.

Meanwhile, Rohit recently lost his captaincy to Hardik Pandya at Mumbai Indians. Hardik, who was with Gujarat Titans for the past two seasons, will lead the five-time champions this time around.

He was traded by MI from GT ahead of the IPL 2024 auction, with Shubman Gill set to lead the 2022 champions after his departure.