‘I was left with no belief,’ Virat Kohli on why he left RCB captaincy in IPL 2021: Virat Kohli has finally opened up on his thoughts on why he left the captaincy role in Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after the IPL 2021. While delivering a motivational speech to the RCB Women’s team ahead of their sixth league game against UP Warriorz, Kohli said he had “no belief” and his “tank was empty” towards the end of his franchise leadership tenure.
The highest run-getter in the IPL, Virat Kohli dropped his captaincy hat after the IPL 2021 and subsequently, the RCB management decided to bring in South African Faf du Plessis as the leader of the peck.
“The time when my captaincy tenure was coming to an end here, I was left with no belief, to be very honest. I was gone, the tank was absolutely empty,” said Kohli on Wednesday during his motivational speech to the RCB Women’s team.
Notably, RCB couldn’t enter the IPL playoffs since IPL 2016. They returned with a wooden spoon at the end of the IPL 2017 and the story iterated again in the IPL 2019 as well. But, in IPL 2022, RCB finally made it to the playoffs after a long hiatus. It also reached the knockouts in the next two editions.
“But that was my own perspective. That was just me as an individual saying that I have seen so much of this, I just can’t manage it, I just can’t handle it anymore,” he added.
“But the next season, new people came in, they had new ideas, there was another opportunity. They were excited. Maybe as an individual, I wasn’t that excited, but they created the energy and we reached the playoffs three years in a row. And now we start every season with the excitement that there was before. I feel excited now.”
“Now we start every season with the excitement that was before and I feel excited now, the person who was not up to the mark. So it is a collective responsibility, if someone is feeling down as well, the others can pull them up.”
Kohli revealed that his decision to quit from the RCB captaincy was made after he had made up his mind to relinquish Team India’s T20I captaincy following the completion of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. After informing about his decision to quit the T20I captaincy, Virat was sacked from the ODI captaincy and later the batter himself left India’s test captaincy as well.
He said there have been times in his career when he has felt insecure and has tried to save his reputation. Addressing his dull patch recently, Kohli said he was under immense pressure to score in every game he walked out to bat.
“I was under pressure and became insecure protecting my reputation of, ‘I am Virat Kohli, and I need to score in every game.’ Young cricketers came to me and said why are you not striking the ball, and I was like yes, they are right, why am I taking so much pressure.”
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To know more head to RCB’s official website.