Virat Kohli stunned the cricket world when he announced on social media on September 16 that the ICC T20 World Cup will be his last assignment as T20I captain. There were plenty speculations on why Kohli took the decision to step down from captaincy. Former Indian captain and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly speaking at Aajtak's 'Salaam Cricket' conclave in Dubai cleared the air over Kohli’s decision to quit T20I captaincy saying that the board had no role to play in it and it was his own decision.
A week later, the 32-year-old also announced that he will step down from Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy as well post the 2021 season. The two big decisions within shocked everyone included Dada.
“No, I was surprised. There was no deliberation (on the captaincy) since a long time. This took place after the England Tour and this was his decision. We didn’t say anything nor did we put any pressure. We don’t put any pressure as I was myself a player, we don’t do such stuff. It’s purely his decision,” Ganguly said.
Even though Ganguly was shocked with the decision, he understands why Kohli took the decision to let go of the captaincy role in the shorter format of the game.
“You have to understand the amount of cricket that is being played. I was India’s captain for six years. It looks good from outside that he is the captain of India. Obviously, it does have respect but then the player also gets the mental and physical burn-out with time and as time passes it gets difficult. And it happens with every captain, not only just with Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dhoni or Kohli. It will happen with the future captains as well and they will get the pressure with the time. It’s a tough job,” the BCCI President added.
While Kohli has said that he wants to focus more on his batting in the format, his form in recently-concluded IPL 2021 and the warm-up game has not been top notch. The former Indian captain isn’t worried by the slump in Kohli’s form and believes that the star batter’s graph will soon shoot up.
“A player, who plays for 20 years, for Virat, it has been 11 years I guess. It won’t be the same every season. He is a human, not a machine. It’s not like you put it inside the machine and keep scoring runs. He is a human too and he also gets the outside edges and even his feet don’t move. And, I am not surprised with it. His graph has gone up, come down and will once again go up and we will get to see the same Virat,” the 49-year-old opined.
