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Rohit Sharma, India's new white-ball skipper lavished praise on Virat Kohli for leading the team from the front.Rohit was named India's new ODI skipper last week and he takes the reins from Kohli as India gear up for the South Africa series.

"He's (Kohli) put the team in the situation where there is no looking back. Those five years that he has led the team led from the front every time we stepped onto the park. And yeah! there was a clear grit and determination to win every game that was the message to the entire squad," Rohit said in an interview posted on the BCCI website.

The abrupt withdrawal of New Zealand and England's refusal to travel to these shores were a couple of setbacks for Pakistan a few months back. But they'll be happy to welcome West Indies who become the second team after South Africa to play a series in Pakistan this year. The return of international cricket in Pakistan is a much-needed boost although it is against a depleted West Indies side, with Covid positive results for Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Kyle Mayers just before the series reducing the squad strength to 12 members.

Dwayne Bravo has retired, Chris Gayle isn't part of the set up, Jason Holder has been rested, Fabian Allen and Obed McCoy are unavailable due to injuries while Evin Lewis, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell and Lendl Simmons pulled out due to personal reasons. With white-ball skipper Kieron Pollard also missing out due to an injury, the Nicholas Pooran-led T20I outfit is a relatively inexperienced one.

Australia vs England 1st Test Day 4 Live:England were bowled out for 297 on Day four in the second innings of the ongoing first Ashes Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday. Having resumed play of Day four at 220 for 2, the visitors could only add 77 runs and lost 8 wickets. England have taken a 19 runs lead against Australia, who will chase 20 runs to seal the first Test. Nathan Lyon bagged his milestone 400th Test wicket on Saturday as he ended a 162-run stand between Joe Root (89) and Dawid Malan (82), dismissing the latter. Earlier, Travis Head's 152 took Australia to a first innings total of 425. Initially, England were bowled out for 147 after opting to bat first. 

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday said that once Virat Kohli refused to continue as India's T20 captain, the selectors made up their mind to hand the ODI reins to Rohit Sharma as the national team couldn't afford "too much leadership" with two separate captains in the limited-overs format.

The BCCI on Wednesday named Rohit the captain of the ODI side going into the 2023 ODI World Cup and Ganguly, in an interaction with PTI, opened up on the issue, asserting that the incumbent was spoken to and duly accepted the decision.

"We had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain but he didn't want to continue as captain. So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white ball captains in two white-ball formats. That's too much of leadership," BCCI president and former India captain told to a news agency.

Rohit Sharma has replaced Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain. Unlike the T20I captaincy change, where the announcement came from Kohli, citing his workload, this is a BCCI decision, to remove him as ODI skipper.

Three months ago, while relinquishing T20I captaincy, Kohli had expressed his desire to lead India in Tests and ODIs, going ahead. “Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI cricket,” he wrote on Instagram on September 16. He also mentioned his conversation with former India head coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and board secretary Jay Shah before taking the decision. Giving up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s captaincy in the Indian Premier League, too, was his own choice.