Sourav Ganguly reminds doubters that Rohit Sharma masterstroke was his idea: ‘Everyone has forgotten I made him captain’

Let’s rewind to November of 2021. Indian cricket was in a bit of turmoil. Virat Kohli, after stepping down as captain from T20Is, was sacked from his position in ODIs as well, leading to absolute chaos. His fallout with the then-BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was all over the media and for public consumption. Ganguly wanted Kohli to reconsider his decision to give up T20 captaincy, but Virat said nothing of that sort was conveyed to him. More pandemonium ensued. Shortly after losing the Test series to South Africa, Kohli relinquished India’s Test captaincy, bringing curtains down on his stint as India’s most successful Test skipper with 40 wins.

With the ODI World Cup two years away, Indian cricket needed a successor, and while history has proven that nurturing a young captain is the way to go about it – look at Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and Ganguly himself – the BCCI went against the ride and made Rohit Sharma as the man in charge. Ganguly has said it time and again that Rohit was not in favour of captaining India because he felt that leading all three formats will take a toll on his form. But having won five IPL titles and being part of India’s leadership group, Rohit, the only viable option available, agreed.

With Kohli enjoying a superlative fan base, Ganguly became their villain, their No. 1 target, to the extent that he was slammed left, right and centre for his treatment of Kohli and elevating Rohit as India’s all-format captain. Fast forward to July 2024, and Ganguly’s vision has come true. He foresaw Rohit attaining great success, and what a prediction it turned out to be as under The Hitman, India won the T20 World Cup, ending their 11-year-long wait for an ICC title.

Ganguly may no longer be BCCI president today but the former India captain has not forgotten the amount of criticism he was subjected to for his decision. Now that the abuses have gone quiet, and India, under Rohit, are world champions, Ganguly mentions that those who once doubted him have conveniently forgotten that it was his move to appoint Sharma the skipper.

“I was criticised when I handed over the captaincy to Rohit. And now that we’ve won a trophy under his captaincy, no one is abusing me. Everyone has forgotten that I made him the captain,” Ganguly said in a chat with a Bangla newspaper AajKaal.

Ganguly’s role in appointing Rahul Dravid as head coach

21 years ago, Ganguly’s Team India came perilously close to winning a World Cup, but their hopes were dashed by the mighty Australia in the final. So what if Rohit and Co. couldn’t get past the final hurdle in Ahmedabad? For every November 19, there is a June 29, and for every teary-eyed ending in sport, there is a euphoric triumph, which Rohit experienced in Barbados 15 days ago. And to think that without Ganguly’s insistence, none of it would be possible.

Not just Rohit, but Ganguly was also responsible for Rahul Dravid coming on board as the head coach, succeeding Ravi Shastri. And together, the Rohit-Dravid combination delivered which Kohli and Shastri, despite their commendable reign couldn’t – win an ICC silverware, let alone a World Cup.