For all we know, they could say 'come finish with us': Steyn predicts next IPL franchise for Kohli after RCB
Former South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn feels Virat Kohli took the decision to avoid fingers from being pointed at him.
Virat Kohli has decided to step down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore after being its leader for 10 years. Kohli made the announcement on Sunday via a video on RCB's Twitter handle, stealing the thunder from the Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians match in Dubai. Kohli's decision comes just days after he took the call to step down as India's T20I captain after the completion of the T20 World Cup.
Many believe the reason behind Kohli's decision has to do with him wanting to focus on his batting. While for the first several years, Kohli the leader hardly had an effect on Kohli the batsman, the last couple of years have seen his batting struggle a little. Weighing in on the same, former South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn feels Kohli took the decision to avoid fingers from being pointed at him.
"He may be just trying to put out and extinguish some fires before they happened, having relinquished the Indian captaincy. If he had two or three bad scores in the next couple of games people might start questioning whether he should give up the RCB captaincy too. So before that even comes into question, he may have decided that let me just say that this is also part of my thinking," Steyn said on ESPNCricinfo.
In the video, Kohli also mentioned that he would play for RCB till the time he is an active cricketer, but Steyn reckons that could change given the mega auction lined up next year. Steyn gave examples of Chris Gayle leaving RCB, and outside of cricketers, referred to how some of the starred athletes left teams/clubs they became famous and synonymous with and hence there is no reason why that cannot happen with Kohli.
"It is nice to know that he has committed himself to the team and he wants to be there to see an IPL trophy come to RCB. He has given so many years and I think that is in the back of his mind too that he is not going to leave until he wins an IPL for RCB," Steyn added.
"It does boil down to the coaches and the RCB management at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how good a player you are, you could see yourself walking. We've seen Chris Gayle leave the team. We have seen David Beckham leave Manchester United after playing for an entire lifespan for them. You never really know; you have these famous people playing for their clubs for a long time and who knows. Virat is originally from Delhi and for all we know, they (Delhi Capitals) could say 'come finish with us."