Watch: Captain Kohli ignores former coach Kumble's name discussing team's success
Colombo: Anil Kumble stepped down from India’s head coach position following the conclusion of ICC Champions Trophy in England, ending speculation of the differences with Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
While neither Kohli nor Kumble openly admitted to the differences, the speculation kept the media buzzing as BCCI invited applications for the head coach role as India left for England for the ICC event.
The Team India captain, in fact, squashed all the reports before India’s opening game against Pakistan in ICC Champions Trophy, saying, “There's been speculations, things being written by people not a part of the dressing room. There's no problem whatsoever. Unless someone is part of something, they shouldn't sit at a distance and pass judgement on someone else.”
However, it seems clear that the Indian skipper and former coach did not enjoy a good rapport. In an interview to BCCI.TV following the fourth Sri Lanka versus India ODI in Colombo, Kohli appreciated contribution of every member of Team India’s support staff – current coach and former Team India director Ravi Shastri, batting coach Sanjay Bangar, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, throwdown expert Raghu, but did not mention Kumble’s name even once.
"The support staff's contribution is massive. I was given the captaincy in 2014 end against Australia and how we were number 7 then and how we are number 1 under the same group of people. They are very special to the team and they gel well with the boys," said Kohli.
"All the way down to Raghu, who's the main reason why all of us have been able to take our batting to the next level. He and Sanjay Bangar have worked relentlessly. And Sridhar fielding wise, Arun paaji with the bowlers, Ravi bhai giving the guys confidence and just unlocking their games in a way that I haven't seen many people do before. His way of motivating people is on another dimension. We really enjoy working with them, it's like a big family, and we're really really happy in each other's company," concluded the Indian skipper during an interview to teammate Rohit Sharma.
