Virat Kohli claims he resigned from leadership to be in a “happy space” because the burden of captaining India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru for almost ten years, as well as the constant criticism surrounding his batting, “became too much in the end.” After the 2021 World Cup, Kohli stepped down as T20 captain and gave up his position as captain of the RCB.After losing to South Africa, he resigned as Test captain a year later. According to Kohli, the unrelenting focus got to be too much at one point in his career. “It did get difficult for me at one time because I had too much going on in my profession. I captained India for seven or eight years. For nine years, I commanded the RCB. The ‘RCB Bold Diaries’ podcast had Kohli saying, “Every game I played had expectations on me from a batting perspective.”
“I didn’t feel like I was the center of attention. It would be batting if it weren’t captaincy. I was surrounded by it all the time. I did find it quite difficult, and ultimately, it became too much. A period in his life when he was finding it difficult to be content in the limelight had arrived, Kohli added. He also took a month-long hiatus from cricket in 2022 and did not bat during that time.
I thought that I had to be content if I had made the decision to be here, which is why I resigned.
Kohli, who has been with RCB since the first IPL season, stated, “I need a place in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged, without being looked at as what are you going to do this season and what’s going to happen now.”
Leading India to the Under-19 World Cup title victory does not ensure a smooth transition into the senior squad. Kohli claimed that his perseverance and the support of coach Gary Kirsten and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni allowed him to earn the No. 3 batting position in the squad.
“I had a pretty realistic view of my skills. due to the fact that I had witnessed many others play. Furthermore, I didn’t think my game was quite as good as theirs. I just had one thing: determination. And I was prepared to do whatever it took to help my team win.
“That’s exactly why I was given the opportunity to play for India in the first place. Additionally, MS (Dhoni) and Gary (Kirsten) made it very apparent to me that we support you playing at number three.” Knowing that he would always be a fighter on the field, Kohli claimed the two urged him to play his natural style.
“You can help the team by doing this. The most valuable thing to us is what you stand for on the field—your enthusiasm and involvement. That’s how we want you to play.
I was therefore never seen of as this clear-cut match winner who could alter the outcome of the game from anywhere. However, I’m going to continue fighting since I had this stuff. I will not give up easily. And they supported that.” According to Kohli, a player’s nervous energy is essential to their performance in cricket and keeps them in competitive mode regardless of how many runs they achieve.
