Me and Rahul Dravid faced it too: Sourav Ganguly shuts down ‘Rohit Sharma sacked’ noise; calls Gill captaincy move...

Speaking to India Today on Thursday, Ganguly refused to accept that Rohit was sacked from his captaincy position, and rather reckoned it was a mutual decision after the selectors had a word with the 38-year-old. The India legend explained that Rohit's age played a major factor in the BCCI making the big call.

"I’m sure Rohit must have been spoken to. I'm not sure if it's a sacking. I’m sure it’s a mutual discussion. Rohit has been an outstanding leader — he’s won the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy. Performance is not the issue with Rohit Sharma. In 2027, Rohit will be 40. That's a big number in sport. It happened to me, it happened to Dravid... It happens to everyone. Even Shubman Gill will face the same at 40. Everyone in sport has to finish someday," he said.

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The newly announced CAB president also backed the selectors' decision to name Gill as the new ODI skipper, especially after his performance in the England tour earlier this summer, in what was his maiden assignment as the Test captain.

"Not a bad decision to promote Gill. He's shown a lot of talent in England. I think it’s a fair call... Rohit can keep playing while you groom a young captain," said Ganguly.

Earlier last week, when chief selector Ajit Agarkar made the official announcement, he explained that it was a forward-looking decision, with the aim of giving Gill enough time before the World Cup.

“Obviously, at some stage, you have to start looking at where the next World Cup is. It’s also a format which is played the least now. So, you don’t get that many games to actually give the next guy or if there is going to be another guy that much time to prepare himself a plan,” Agarkar said.

“The World Cup is still two years away. That might look like a long time, but we don’t quite know how many One-Day games we might play closer to the World Cup. We might end up playing a little bit more than what we have. The last ODI we played was in March during the Champions Trophy and the next one we play is on October 19. So, it is a bit of a challenge with One-day cricket at the moment,” he said, adding that even though the T20 World Cup is next year, planning for the ODI World Cup would also start slowly.

“That’s the plan. It gives the next guy enough time to plan with whatever games that we have,” Agarkar added.

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