Kohli’s attitude is good but he fights a lot, says Ganguly

While expressing much admiration for Virat Kohli’s attitude, former India captain and Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly has observed that the former picks up fights easily.

Following reports of a confrontation between the two, this is the first time that Ganguly has opened up on Kohli’s attitude. At an event in Gurugram, when asked which player had the best attitude in his view, he said: “I like Virat Kohli’s attitude but he fights a lot.”

There has been a lot of speculation on the T20I (Twenty20 International) captaincy with Kohli having stated that he wasn’t told by any BCCI official to not step down from that post. At a press conference ahead of India’s tour to South Africa, he had claimed he wasn’t asked to continue to lead the Indian side in the shorter format.

Contradictory statements

However, days prior to that, Ganguly said in an interview that he personally approached Kohli to remain at the helm in T20Is. This came after Rohit Sharma replaced Kohli as India’s full-time ODI (One Day International) cricket captain — a call that Ganguly said the BCCI and selectors had made together.

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“It’s a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats,” he had said.

Kohli and Ganguly’s two different takes on the T20I captaincy issue had left the cricketing fraternity as well as media and the public confused.  Kohli and team are currently in South Africa to play a three-match Test series starting from December 26. 

Asked at the Gurugram event how he dealt with all the stress, Ganguly quipped: “There is no stress in life. Only wife and girlfriend give stress.” It may be recalled that the former Indian skipper has faced cardiac issues in the recent past.