When asked about the camaraderie between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and all the talks and rumours about their alleged rift, former India captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar said that these rumours are “nonsense” and nothing more than “speculations”.
India completed a comfortable win over West Indies in the first one-day international of the three-match series in Ahmedabad and that gave Rohit Sharma the perfect start to his full-time reign as India’s ODI captain. The victory was sweet because it was also India’s 1000th one-day international, the first team to achieve the milestone in international cricket.
The match had several highlights for the hosts including a DRS call, where former captain Virat Kohli convinced Rohit to take the review and it eventually worked out for the hosts. When asked about the camaraderie between the two senior players and all the talks and rumours about their alleged rift, former India captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar rubbished these rumours as “nonsense” and “speculations”, which are not true.
“Why would they (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) not be getting along? They are playing for India. All these talks that you generally hear about two players not gelling, is always speculations… According to reliable sources, allegedly, reportedly,” Gavaskar said when asked about the camaraderie between Kohli and Rohit in the post-matc show on host broadcasters Star Sports.
“This has been happening for years, this is not happening for the first time. The guys who are involved, don’t even bother about it. You wouldn’t even bother about such speculations because you know what is the truth. Then often there is that speculation that a former captain who is now a player in the team will not try his best because he doesn’t want the new captain to succeed. That is nonsense because if he doesn’t score runs or pick wickets, he is going to be out of the team….So, all this talk is just speculations. People who have got nothing better to do tend to try and create stories,” he added.
Virat Kohli had himself, during the pre-departure press conference ahead of the start of the South Africa series, had rubbished these reports.
“There is no problem between me and Rohit Sharma. I have been clarifying for the past two years and I am tired now. I want to also say one thing that none of my actions or decisions will be to take the team down,” Kohli had said.
“My responsibility is to push the team in the right direction. Rohit is a very able captain and tactically very sound. Along with Rahul bhai, who is a great man manager. They will get my 100 percent support in ODIs and T20Is,” he had added.