MUMBAI: Virat Kohli on Thursday announced that he will step down as India’s T20I captain after the conclusion of the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Kohli, who has played 90 T20Is for India, has captained in 45 of those matches and won 27 of them.
The 32-year-old announced in a statement put out on his official Twitter handle that the decision was taken after consulting people close to him, head coach Ravi Shastri and teammate Rohit Sharma.
Kohli cited the “immense workload” he has been managing for most of the last decade, as an all-format player and as captain, as the reason for his decision.
“Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all three formats and captaining regularly for last five to six years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead Indian team in Test and ODI cricket,” the statement reads.
“I have given my everything to the Team during my time as T20 captain and I will continue to do so for the T20 captain and will continue to do so for the T20 team as a batsman moving forward.”
“I have also spoken to the secretary Mr Jay Shah and the President of BCCI Mr Sourav Ganguly along with all the selectors about the same. I will continue to serve Indian Cricket and the Indian Team to the best of my ability,” he further added.
Speaking of Shah, it was as recently as Tuesday that the BCCI secretary had asserted Virat will continue to captain India in all three formats.
Shah had told website Cricbuzz: “There is no such proposal (to replace Kohli) and the team is led by Virat and we are backing him. We are sensitive to the fact that such a proposal is not in the interest of Indian team when it will take part in a World Cup.”
It bears noting that Shah’s assertion came just a day after BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal (who also happens to be the brother of Anurag Thakur, former BCCI president and current Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting) had categorically affirmed that Virat would remain India’s captain in all formats.
So are we to believe that Virat sprung this on the Indian cricket board? Seen from this perch, that is about as believable as saying the moon is made of green cheese.
Be that as it may, what set the cat among the pigeons, as it were, on the coordinated denials front was a report by Times of India that Virat would be replaced as T20 captain by Rohit Sharma after the T20 World Cup.
By the looks of things however, it does appear that the TOI ruffled some feathers for announcing “ahead of time” that Virat was relinquishing the T20I captaincy.
