Virat Kohli Says ‘He Wanted Some Space’ And Hence Stepped Down As RCB Captain

Virat Kohli remains the only cricketer in the IPL to have played for a single franchise since his debut when he joined the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2008 as a U19 player. Since then, he has been with the team, becoming captain in 2013 and leading the side for a decade.

However, before the IPL 2021, Kohli shocked the RCB and IPL fans, announcing that he will step down as the captain of the side after the tournament. Kohli also stepped down from Indian T20I captaincy as well, with the T20 World Cup 2021 being his last as India captain.

Kohli talked about quitting the captaincy on the RCB podcast and said: “I’m not someone who holds onto things more than I should. Even if I know I can do a lot more, if I’m not going to enjoy the process, I’m not going to do it.”

“Because it’s very difficult for people to understand your decisions unless they are in your situation. From the outside, people have their own expectations Oh! How did that happen? We are so shocked’.

“There’s nothing to be shocked about. I explain to people, I wanted some space and I wanted to manage my workload and the story ends there,” Kohli added.

When I Wanted To Make A Decision, I Made A Decision And I Announced It: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli had taken over as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captaincy in 2013 from Daniel Vettori, who moved into the head coach role. Kohli since then led the RCB to their second IPL final in 2016, while having the tournament of his life that season, scoring 974 runs including a record four centuries.

However, RCB fell at the final hurdle, losing the IPL 2016 final to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), led by David Warner, who won the final and the trophy. Right from the inaugural IPL till last season, RCB has never won the cash-rich tournament.

Kohli’s decision to quit the captaincy raised quite a few eyebrows and the former RCB and India skipper asserted that it is very difficult for people to understand what a cricketer thinks while taking such decisions.

Rubbising all the conversations that people had about his decision, Kohli cleared the air saying, “There was actually nothing at all. I keep my life very simple and basic, when I wanted to make a decision, I made a decision and I announced it. I didn’t want to think about it and contemplate it for another year.

“That would’ve done nothing to me, nothing to the environment I’m part of. Quality of life is something very important to me. And the quality of cricket is something very important to me.”

“Over a period of time, you want to do what you’re doing day-in-and-day-out and you want to do as much as you can, but at the end of the day, you have to realize that quality is far more important than quantity,” stressed Kohli.

Virat Kohli was retained by the RCB franchise for the IPL 2022 season, who are yet to name a new captain.

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