Ever since India’s hopes of winning the coveted World Cup were dashed with their semi-final exit, the rift between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli is no more limited to the dressing room. The rumours of a cold war brewing between the captain and vice-captain of the national cricket team have been doing the rounds for quite some time. And if recent reports are to be believed, Rohit Sharma might still be not in the mood to dissolve their differences. The opening batsman has recently unfollowed Bollywood actress and Virat Kohli’s wife, Anushka Sharma on Instagram and is not following the skipper either.
Couple of years earlier Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan had left the management company they shared with Virat Kohli and that seems to be the beginning of the tussle. With India’s loss at the recently concluded World Cup and the talks among the selectors about considering split captaincy could suggest that they are trying to put off the flame before it explodes. A source in the know believes that one can connect the dots and figure out that something is up. “There were reports which came out following the World cup about a rift between two senior players in the dressing room, there were no names mentioned. And later there were also reports that one senior player will be under investigation for breaking certain rules. So there are rumours that player could be Rohit Sharma,” says the source.
It was also said that during the semi-final match, Kohli and team coach Ravi Shashtri teamed up and made all the decisions, leaving the vice-captain in the dark. A sports journalist, however, believes that all is well between the two and the rumours are nothing but conjecture, “Virat is the captain so the team management will have to give more weightage to his opinion and I think they are very good friends,” he says.
Although there were discussions about split captaincy, all the three teams announced for the West Indies tour is being led by Virat Kohli. There’s also uproar on the social media, asking Virat to pass on the ODI captaincy to Rohit. But experts believe that Rohit’s talent will be better utilised in T20. “I think mostly the push will be towards T20 because going by his track record if you take only IPL in comparison, Rohit has done much better than Virat,” says our source.
Only time will tell if there is a rift between Rohit and Virat, but can this affect their performance during a match? Our source believes that this will push both the players to perform better than the other. “This might affect the team in the sense that decision making on the field if you take other people’s decision it enriches the decision if they have this sort of a rift, that could affect the team,” he adds.
