Former BCCI President Sourav Ganguly mistakenly referred to sports journalist Vikrant Gupta as Virat Kohli during an interview on June 17. Ganguly was trying to defend Rohit Sharma’s captaincy after the WTC 2023 final defeat when he made a major goof after which the video of the interview went viral on social media.
Team India lost against Australia in the all-important WTC 2023 final by 209 runs at The Oval in London. This was the second consecutive time that the Men in Blue qualified for the finals but couldn’t clinch the marquee title leading to disappointment for the Indian cricket fans.
Sourav Ganguly mistakenly refers to journalist Vikrant Gupta as Virat Kohli
Vikrant Gupta asked former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly about Rohit Sharma’s leadership in an interview on June 17. His tongue slipped while trying to defend Rohit’s captaincy following his side’s defeat in the WTC Final.
Ganguly mentioned that the Mumbai Indians’ skipper has won IPL 5 times and apart from him only MS Dhoni has got that kind of success in the cash-rich league. He emphasized the fact that winning an IPL trophy is not an easy task for any captain.
“IPL jeetna itna aasan nahi hai Virat (It’s not so easy to win IPL, Virat),” the former captain mistakenly said. He immediately corrected himself by addressing journalist Vikrant Gupta, who was taking the interview, by his correct name.
— Out Of Context Cricket (@GemsOfCricket) June 18, 2023
He compared the difficulty of winning the IPL to that of a World Cup, citing the longer tournament format of the IPL with 14 matches followed by playoffs. Ganguly appreciated Rohit Sharma’s record as the skipper of the Mumbai Indians franchise and showed trust in his leadership skills.
In the interview with journalist Vikrant Gupta, Ganguly also talked about how Rohit Sharma was the best captaincy candidate after Virat Kohli stepped down from captaincy at the end of South Africa series in January 2023. The former skipper also added that Rohit still is the best person to lead the Indian side.
It’s worth noting that Virat Kohli is yet to win an IPL trophy with his franchise RCB. He led the franchise till IPL 2021 but couldn’t succeed and eventually resigned as the captain after which Faf du Plessis was appointed as their leader.
While the Royal Challengers Bangalore side has done pretty decently in the last few seasons, they haven’t won the IPL trophy yet. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians have won the marquee tournament 5 times.