Virat Kohli makes it official, steps down as the T20 skipper

A lot of speculation, a lot of opinions surrounded the discussion regarding the capacity of the Indian men’s cricket team but now the debate over the T20 captaincy row has finally come to a conclusion.

Virat Kohli has decided to step down as the T20 captain on Thursday, which is three days after reports about him quitting the captaincy broke. He posted a lengthy message on his social media handle saying that he has taken the decision to quit the position after the T20 tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

Despite people suspecting it to be a sudden development or call by the skipper, experts stress that it has been in planning for a long time. The murmurs were not as recent as many would assume as they had already begun in July after India lost to New Zealand in the WTC final.

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It was a moment of confrontation for Kohli, who was being targeted at every corner for being a ‘not-so-good’ captain on field, an opinion that has changed over the course of the last few tournaments.  Not only was his captaincy the issue but his regular arguments with the selection committee are also being considered as reasons for this.

He reportedly had to fight till the very last moment to keep opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan in the ODI side for the England series. The selectors wanted to bring in someone new for the spot but Kohi kept on insisting for Dhawan, who had already lost his spot on the T20 squad.

While making the announcement, the 32-year-old cricketer said that he feels that he needs to give himself space to be ready to lead the team in the remaining two formats. He added that the decision has been taken after consulting people who are close to him, head coach Ravi Shastri and Rohit Sharma.

According to him, the core factor that led him to take this decision was his immense workload over the eight nine years playing all three formats and captaining the team for five six years without taking a break. “I have given everything to the Team during my time as T20 Captain and I will continue to do so for the T20 Team as a batsman moving forward,” he said.

Rohit Sharam is the frontrunner for the captaincy for the T20 squad. His name has been popping for months now as he has been one of the most successful captains in the Indian Premier League series so experts suspect that he may be a good fit for the team. Kohli stated, “Considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years. I have given everything to the Team during my time as T20 Captain and I will continue to do so for the T20 Team as a batsman moving forward”.