Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has taken a dig at critics, stating he was the one who appointed Rohit Sharma as India’s captain. After Virat Kohli stepped down from the role, Ganguly, who was the BCCI president at that time, picked Rohit as India’s skipper in all three formats.

Rohit recently led India to T20 World Cup glory as they defeated South Africa by seven runs in the final. Sharma scored 257 runs in eight matches of the T20 World Cup 2024 at an average of 36.71 and a strike rate of 156.71 and thus led from the front.

Under Rohit’s captaincy, India made it to the semifinal of the 2022 T20 World Cup, the World Test Championship final 2021-23, and the ODI World Cup 2023 final. After Rohit’s retirement from T20Is, Hardik Pandya is expected to take over the coaching baton in the shortest format.

“When I handed Rohit Sharma the captaincy of the Indian team, everyone criticised me. Now that India has won the T20 World Cup under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, everyone has stopped abusing me for it. In fact, I think everyone has forgotten that it was I who appointed him as the captain of the Indian team,” said Ganguly while talking to Ajkaal today.

Meanwhile, Ganguly, who is also the Director of Cricket Operations for Delhi Capitals, wants the franchise to win the title in the upcoming season of the IPL.

“I am planning for the next IPL. I want DC to win this time. I will speak to the management about appointing an Indian as the head coach. I want to give a shot as the head coach. I will bring in some new players,” said Ganguly.

DC has parted ways with their head coach Ricky Ponting, who was part of the franchise for seven seasons. Under Ponting, DC made it to the final of IPL 2020 but could not get over the line against Mumbai Indians.