File photo of Virat Kohli.
Following reports that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was unhappy with some of Virat Kohli's decisions during the World Test Championship (WTC) final, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt said that the Indian skipper is being made a target of a "dirty game".
Butt was responding to a recent news report that also claimed that Virat could be asked to make way for Rohit Sharma as captain if Team India fails to perform well in the ICC World T20. The former Pakistan captain further said with a successful Test series in England and a crucial T20 World Cup looming, this is not the time to rake up the captaincy debate.
"Do you see the timing of this news? I don't have a problem with what the board thinks, it's about their own evaluation of who can take their cricket forward... but is this the time to discuss these things? Now there's talk of Virat Kohli's captaincy being on the danger line," Butt said in a video on his YouTube channel.
"He's (Virat) recently played a series in England, led his team really well, he was being criticised for his team selections but he's constantly backing his team and in turn the team is responding to him and playing good cricket... the team is at the top in every format and the World Cup is right up front, so such news surfacing in the media is nothing but a dirty game."
Asked about comparing the white-ball trophies won by Kohli and Rohit, Butt said the latter is a very good captain but the former, too, has a decent win percentage across formats.
"I have said this before, Rohit Sharma is a very good captain, very successful, but this is not the time to talk about these things... Trophies matter, I agree but see the percentage of the games he has won and how successful he has been around the world. I think this is not the time and the guy has done a lot of good to Indian cricket. This news resurfacing is nothing but bad intent which shouldn't happen."
