During an interview on June 17, former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly mistakenly referred to sports journalist Vikrant Gupta as Virat Kohli. Ganguly was attempting to defend Rohit Sharma’s captaincy following Team India’s defeat in the WTC 2023 final, but his slip of the tongue caused the video of the interview to go viral on social media.
In the crucial WTC 2023 final held at The Oval in London, Team India suffered a 209-run loss against Australia. This marked the second consecutive time that the Indian team reached the finals but failed to secure the coveted title, leaving Indian cricket fans disappointed.
During the interview, Vikrant Gupta questioned Sourav Ganguly about Rohit Sharma’s leadership. Ganguly inadvertently mentioned that the Mumbai Indians’ skipper had won the IPL five times, stating that only MS Dhoni had achieved similar success in the cash-rich league. Ganguly underscored the fact that winning an IPL trophy is a challenging task for any captain.
“Mistakenly, IPL jeetna itna aasan nahi hai Virat (Winning the IPL is not so easy, Virat),” the former captain inadvertently said, before promptly correcting himself and addressing journalist Vikrant Gupta by his correct name.
Ganguly compared the difficulty of winning the IPL to that of a World Cup, citing the IPL’s longer tournament format of 14 matches followed by playoffs. He commended Rohit Sharma’s performance as the captain of the Mumbai Indians franchise and expressed confidence in his leadership abilities.
— Out Of Context Cricket (@GemsOfCricket) June 18, 2023
During the interview with journalist Vikrant Gupta, Ganguly also discussed how Rohit Sharma emerged as the best candidate for captaincy after Virat Kohli stepped down from the position at the end of the South Africa series in January 2023. The former captain further asserted that Rohit is still the ideal person to lead the Indian side.
It is worth noting that Virat Kohli has yet to win an IPL trophy with his franchise RCB. He captained the team until IPL 2021 but did not achieve success, eventually resigning as captain. Faf du Plessis was then appointed as the team’s leader.