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Cricket Players'There is nothing to be shocked about': Virat Kohli reveals reason behind stepping down as RCB captain
Ahead of the 2022 edition of the IPL, which is expected to begin from the first week of April, Kohli has revealed why he took the decision of stepping down as captain of the franchise after leading it for eight seasons.
It was during the first match of the second half of IPL 2021 when Virat Kohli dropped a bombshell of an announcement that he was no longer going to captain Royal Challengers Bangalore from next year. Kohli's announcement was shocking given it wasn't too long ago that he had informed the world of his decision to step down as India’s T20I captain. As it turns out, over the next four months, Kohli would no longer remain captain in any form – be it India or RCB.
Ahead of the 2022 edition of the IPL, which is expected to begin from the first week of April, Kohli has revealed why he took the decision of stepping down as captain of the franchise after leading it for eight seasons. "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," Kohli said on 'The RCB Podcast'.
"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," added Kohli.
RCB's best performance under Kohli came back in 2016 when they reached the IPL final. Kohli had dominated with the bat, leading from the front scoring 973 runs – which is still a record for the most runs scored by a player in a single edition of the IPL. However, the next few years weren't as great with RCB finishing with the wooden spoon twice in 2017 and 2019. They turned a new corner in the 2020 and 2021 editions of the IPL, reaching the Playoffs, but didn't manage to secure a place in the final.
"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," said Kohli.
"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"
