"Captaincy is not anyone's birthright" - When Gautam Gambhir expressed his frank views on Virat Kohli's sacking as ODI captain
Virat Kohli's tenure as T20I captain came to an end after the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. He had announced his decision to give up leadership in the format ahead of the ICC event. The star cricketer was keen to carry on as ODI captain, but the BCCI thought otherwise and named Rohit Sharma as the white-ball leader of the Indian team.
Kohli's sacking as one-day captain was followed by an intriguing phase in Indian cricket. Fans and experts were keen to see how the star batter would fare under other captains after having been leader of the ship for a decent amount of time.
Speaking on the Star Sports show Game Plan ahead of the India-South Africa ODI series in early 2022, Gambhir opined that not much would change for Kohli apart from the fact that he wouldn't be going out for the toss or setting the field. He said:
"What new do you want to see? Captaincy is not anyone's birthright. People like MS Dhoni have given the captaincy baton to Virat Kohli, he has played under Virat Kohli as well. He has won three ICC trophies and four IPL trophies as well.
"I think Kohli should look to score runs and that is more important. When you dream of playing for India, you don't dream to become a captain. You dream of winning games for India and nothing changes, except that you are not going out there to do the toss and set the field placement, but your energy and intensity should remain the same because it's an honor playing for the country," Gambhir had gone on to add.
India toured South Africa for a three-match ODI series at the start of 2022, which was preceded by a three-match Test series. Rohit was supposed to lead the Men in Blue in the one-dayers, but was ruled out due to injury. Vice-captain KL Rahul was handed over the reins for the ODI series in which India were thumped 3-0.
How did Virat Kohli perform in the ODI series against South Africa in 2022?
If we talk about Kohli's performance in the three-match one-day series against the Proteas, he scored 116 runs in three innings at an average of 38.67 and an underwhelming strike rate of 76.32.
The right-handed batter scored 51 off 63 in the first one-dayer at Boland Park in Paarl. He was dismissed for a duck in the second ODI at the same venue and ended the series with 65 off 84 in Cape Town, a game India lost by four runs.