Salman Butt brutally slams Indian Cricket Board for removing Virat Kohli as captain

Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt has taken Indian Cricket Board by its decision to remove Virat Kohli as captain around a year ago. Notably, the right-hander was removed from the ODI captaincy while he had left the T20I and Test captaincy on his own. At that time, it was believed that he was removed from the job as the team failed to win a World Championship.

Rohit Sharma replaced Kohli as captain. However, in the recently-concluded 20-20 World Cup, India lost the semis. Taking note of this, Butt was in no mood to relent on the richest cricket board. He started by saying that there was no valid reason to sack Kohli. Butt added that there are many skippers who retired without winning a World Championship.

“When had they sacked Kohli? There was no valid reason for that. The reason was that he did not win a World Championship. How many captains have actually won the World Championship? Many have spent their entire career without it. Ab jeet liye (Have they won it now)? He was a quality captain. He wasn’t the only reason why the team had lost. It is not that the team has drastically improved now. If it was all about winning then it’s not that Dhoni can’t play in the T20s. And how can you can for 20-20 World Cup?

T20 format is fickle in nature: Salman Butt

The Lahore player further added that a format such as T20 is fickle in nature and anything can happen. He feels that a captain must be able to lead the team tactically.

“The format itself is so fickle and World Cups are happening so frequently and then you have various leagues going on in between. And above that if you have someone who is fit, ready to go and can lead you tactically then why not? Grooming can happen in bigger formats as well. But again it’s all about their mindset,” he said.