‘I wanted some space to manage my workload’, reveals Virat Kohli on quitting RCB captaincy

SportsCafe Desk
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Virat Kohli, who had stepped down as the RCB captain after the last edition of the IPL, has said that he took that call to give himself some space to manage his workload. Kohli has also asserted that it is very difficult for people to understand what a cricketer thinks while taking such decisions.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise will have a new captain at the helm when they take the field for the first time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, scheduled to begin in the last week of March. Former captain Virat Kohli had stepped down from the post after last IPL season. 

Speaking about his resignation on "The RCB Podcast", Kohli said that he wanted to give himself some space to manage his workload: “I explain to people, I wanted some space and I wanted to manage my workload and the story ends there.”

Kohli also stated that there is nothing to be ‘shocked about’ for his decision of quitting the captaincy for the franchise. 

“I'm not someone who holds onto things more than I should. Even if I know I can do a lot more, if I'm not going to enjoy the process, I'm not going to do it. Because it's very difficult for people to understand your decisions unless they are in your situation. From the outside, people have their own expectations ‘Oh! How did that happen? We are so shocked. There's nothing to be shocked about,” he explained.

When asked about the thought behind giving up his RCB captaincy, Kohli rubbished all the conversations that people had about his decision, saying, “There was actually nothing at all. I keep my life very simple and basic. When I wanted to make a decision, I made a decision and I announced it.

"I didn't want to think about it and contemplate it for another year. That would've done nothing to me, nothing to the environment I'm part of. Quality of life is something very important to me. And the quality of cricket is something very important to me.

"Over a period of time, you want to do what you're doing day-in-and-day-out and you want to do as much as you can, but at the end of the day, you have to realize that quality is far more important than quantity," Kohli clarified.

Kohli helped RCB reach the IPL final in 2019 and 2011, but lost to Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) respectively. The franchise had reached the playoffs for the third time in the tournament’s history in 2015, and again reached the final in the following year. However, they ended up as a losing side in the final again, this time against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). In that year, Kohli had a dream season with the bat, scoring 973 runs from 16 matches at an average of 81.08 and a strike rate of 152.03.

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