He Will Want To Leave India's T20I Captaincy On A High - Virat Kohli's Childhood Coach Rajkumar Sharma

Rajkumar Sharma, Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s childhood coach, has opined that the 32-year-old will be looking to go out on a high by winning the upcoming T20 World Cup. Kohli announced that he will be stepping down as the captain from the T20Is to maintain his workload.

There was speculation claiming that the talismanic batsman will let go of white-ball captaincy altogether. However, Kohli took to social media to confirm it will only be the T20I format. Rajkumar Sharma engaged in a conversation with ANI regarding his student’s decision.

“New captain will bring new ideas and new strategies, so it will interesting to see who is named as the skipper. Just like what Dhoni did, Virat too will like to play the same role and help the new captain. He will be more determined and focused to win the T20 World Cup as he will want to leave India’s T20I captaincy on a high,” he said.

“Captaining in three formats does put a player under pressure” – Rajkumar Sharma

Rajkumar continued by stating that the right decision was made by Virat Kohli. The Indian captain is a huge supporter of Test cricket. Therefore, he would want to continue leading the side in the longest format.

“It is a thoughtful decision, he had discussed with me also about this. Captaining in three formats does put a player under pressure and hence he decided to step down from T20I captaincy.“

“We were discussing about it as it is a big issue, I was sure about it. Virat loves the Test format and he will want to lead India in the Test format for a longer period and ODI too hence he decided to step down from T20I captaincy to ease off the pressure,” Rajkumar further added.

The new captain hasn’t been decided yet. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma could be one of the potential candidates. However, it will be interesting to see if the management decides to hand over the captaincy to a 34-year-old.

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