Kohli shocked his fans by quitting the RCB captaincy
Last night, Kohli surprised his fans by announcing that it will be his last IPL as captain in the Royal Challenger Bangalore. He also mentioned that he will continue to be part of the RCB as a player for as long as he plays.
It was indeed a shocking decision announced suddenly by Virat Kohli before the start of the second leg of this IPL. He attributed his reason for making this sudden decision to the workload he has been facing over the last few years. His decision came after he also announced to step down from the T20 captaincy after the T20 World cup attributing to the workload which impacted his performance.
Since Virat Kohli assumed the captaincy of RCB, RCB has been unable to win a single trophy. Many times many questions have been raised over the ability of the Virat to take RCB to the title. Not winning the IPL trophy a single time might be the reason that triggered his decision to leave the IPL captaincy.
Virat Kohli became the captain of the Royal challengers Bangalore as a successor to Daniel Vettori. Since then, RCB has won 62 matches of the 132 matches that they played with 66 losses and 4 no-results. They have reached very near to winning the title a couple of times, but they have not been able to win the title.
“It has been a great and an inspiring journey, captaining a talented bunch of players in the RCB squad,” Kohli said. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the RCB management, coaches, support staff, players, and the entire RCB family, who have been instrumental in the growth of the franchise over the years. It wasn’t an easy decision but one that has been well thought of and in the best interest of this wonderful franchise. The RCB family remains close to my heart as we continue to strive to achieve excellence. As I have mentioned previously on many occasions, I will only play for RCB until my retirement from the game of cricket.”
“Spoke to the management this evening. It was something on my mind for a while. As I recently announced, (I’ll be) stepping down from T20 captaincy as well to manage my workload which has been immense over the last so many years. I want to continue to remain committed to the responsibilities I am fulfilling and I felt I needed this space to refresh, regroup and be absolutely clear in how I want to move forward. And also understanding that RCB is going to go through a transitional phase with a big auction coming in next year. I made it clear to the management that (smiles) I can’t think of being in any other team than RCB and that’s been my commitment from day one,” Kohli told RCB in his announcement video.
RCB will start their IPL campaign against the Kolkata knight riders on Monday in Abu Dhabi.