‘He was extremely overworked; his performance will improve now’: Former Pakistan skipper backs Virat Kohli

Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt said that Virat Kohli’s performance will only get better and better after he handed over his ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma.

BCCI appointed Rohit Sharma ODIs and T20s captain on Wednesday and will kick-start his reign during the forthcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. Rohit has also been named as India’s vice-captain in Tests, replacing Ajinkya Rahane.

“There is no element of surprise here. It’s a good thing because you will see Virat Kohli’s performance getting better because he was extremely overworked. As I said, this doesn’t come as a surprise to me. It was on the cards. It doesn’t make sense anyway if he’s only the T20 captain. It makes sense to segregate between red ball and white ball (cricket) to reduce the pressure on a certain player,” Salman Butt said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.

“India doesn’t play a lot T20Is; they mainly play ODIs and Tests. In order to reduce workload (of Kohli), the entire white-ball captaincy had to go one way,” he further explained.