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January 15, 2022 marked the end of an era in Indian cricket as Virat Kohli announced that he was done with his tenure as captain in the longest format. The Delhi-born cricketer on Saturday took to his official social media accounts and dropped the news. The decision came a day after India's Test series defeat to South Africa.
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is the latest to welcome Virat’s decision. Speaking to Samaa TV, the all-rounder opined that the Indian batter has played enough cricket to know what’s right for him.
“It’s fine in my opinion. Virat has played enough cricket and led the team well. And I believe this is the correct decision. There comes a stage where you can’t handle pressure, and because of it, your own performances get affected. So, I think he has captained for a long time and at a great level. As a batsman, it’s time he enjoys his cricket,” Afridi said.
After stepping down as T20I skipper post India’s embarrassing exit from the ICC T20 World Cup, Kohli was sacked from ODI captaincy too. Before the mega tournament, he had already announced that he will step down as captain from the shortest format. With no burden of captaincy on his shoulder, Kohli, the ‘run-machine’ will now return to the field against South Africa in first ODI of the three-ODI series on January 16.
From Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne to Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar, everyone lauded Kohli for his contributions towards Indian cricket. Under Kohli, India won Test series in Australia and are also leading 2-1 in England with the last Test yet to be played in 2022 as it was postponed due to Covid-19 outbreak in Indian camp. India were placed seventh on ICC Test rankings when Kohli was handed the captaincy in red-ball format. The right-handed batter took team India to the first position. India lost only two Tests at home in seven years of Kohli’s reign and qualified for the final of inaugural World Test Championship (WTC).
Kohli goes out as India's most successful captain with 40 wins from 68 Tests, ahead of greats like MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Azharuddin. Kohli is fourth in the list captains with most wins with Graeme Smith, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting ahead of him. The 33-year-old is also fourth when it comes to most runs as a Test captain.
