Former South African seamer Dale Steyn, who recently retired from all forms of cricket, in an exclusive chat with Vikrant Gupta, Aaj Tak/Sports Tak Managing Editor talked about Virat Kohli's sudden decision to give up his T20 captaincy, and who will be a perfect fit to replace Kohli's big shoes.
The Delhi-lad shocked everyone with his decision to step down as India’s T20I captain after the T20I World Cup through a post on social media on September 16. A week later, the Indian skipper also announced that he will give up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy as well after the ongoing season. The decision to let go of captaincy in the shorter format of the game has shocked everyone including Steyn.
“I think, the IPL captaincy came as a bit of a surprise. When it comes to the international teams and captaining international teams, that was also a bit of surprise to me really. I understand where that comes from because I’ve played so much of international cricket and I have been around one particular international captain where they say they are only going to focus on two parts of the game. So, they are going to give up this captaincy because it is a lot of responsibility. But, I thought he may continue being the captain of RCB. That was a surprise for me that he gave it up. I just recently got retired and one knows the feeling to get out and you want to tell the world that this is not what you are going to do and there is something else you want to be focusing on. He did it at the right time. He did it at the start of the second leg of the IPL and he said, ‘guys, I am letting you know end of the season, I am not doing it anymore.’ So, it’s quite nice so that he can focus on the remainder of the IPL. But, it does surprise (me) because Kohli is in all-in-kind of player. He is all-in with the bat, he is all-in with the ball, he is all-in on the field and then he is all-in with his captaincy. Obviously, there is a lot on his plate and it’s nice to kind of shift these responsibilities to somebody else. He can focus mainly on his batting. He has got a young family right now. So, good for him.”
How will Virat Kohli 2.0 be?
“I feel he will probably be better. I think he will be fantastic. He is still going to be batting where he wants to bat. It’s Virat Kohli. He is one of the best batsmen in the world. If he wants to bat 3, he will bat 3, if he wants to open, he will open. It’s not a difficult discussion you know. He might have the focus on his batting. Whereas when you captain, I have managed to captain the school team, which was a long time ago but I still know what it goes inside the mind of a captain. They worry about everything. They worry about the next game, everybody’s health and fitness. I am amazed with these guys can still go out and still do what they do best because they get judged on what they do. If they don’t score runs, they are going to get dropped. But, Kohli is fantastic. I have seen him play under MS (Dhoni) back in the day and other captains and he scored tons of runs. He is going to be absolutely fine.”
Rohit Sharma seems to be the successor in terms of T20. The ‘Steyn-Gun’ has identified Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer as future Indian captains, who can be groomed under Sharma.
“There are tons. You just need to look around the IPL, there are so many. You got SKY (Suryakumar Yadav), Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer. There are so many of these guys. Rohit, they can all do it. You just have to give somebody responsibility and allow them to run with it and India have been good with it. They have given the captaincy to one-particular player for long period of time and they have done the job. They have got bunch of people to pick from. The most exciting thing for India right now, if you look at the young players that are coming through they are all world-class players. You look at Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant. These are young players. They are doing extremely well at the international level. So, if you give the captaincy to someone like a Rohit, who has been around for a while, won numerous IPLs, it’s a great call. So, that he can nurture these guys going forward.”
Have you seen any cracks in Virat’s batting? Or is it just a momentarily phase where runs aren’t coming?
“I think, the runs are not coming right now. Like you said, it is just a phase. He is a good player. Every good player goes through these phase. Even as a bowler myself I went through one or two phases where I wasn’t taking as many wickets. This is how it goes. I see KG Rabada go through a little slump in international cricket and the next game, boom! He is able to take wickets. And Virat is the same. He is a great batsman. He is the focal point of many people. So, even when he does well, we don’t pay much attention to it because we feel like that’s what he should be doing all the time. But, when he does badly, it’s like we can really grate him. He is in the eye of the public every single time and other players are not and they can get away from it. But, it’s just a phase for him right now. He is a phenomenal player. I can guarantee you that you know bowlers who are playing against him today, last night are worried about bowling to someone like Virat. They are not sitting and thinking he is having a slump, he is not scoring any runs, we are going to get him out. They know what kind of player he is and as long as he has got that, he will score runs.”
“Even if he scores a duck, it doesn’t matter. Somebody else on the other side is going to score runs purely because he is batting with Virat or because they are in the team with Virat, Same thing goes with AB de Villiers. He might get no runs in a particular game. But, there is another person sitting there, thinking to himself, I am in the dressing room with AB de Villiers, with Virat Kohli, and I am going to score runs for them today to inspire them to inspire me. That’s the role we don’t see on the paper. That’s what you don’t see on the score card.”
