Virat Kohli stepped down as India’s T20I captain after the conclusion of India’s T20 World Cup campaign. He had announced his decision well ahead of the high-voltage tournament. Though there were speculations that Kohli was forced to give up captaincy but both Kohli and the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly maintained that it was the personal decision of the Indian skipper.
While announcing the big decision of his retirement, Virat Kohli had revealed that he would be stepping down from the position of t20I captain, in order to, focus more on his batting and to lighten some wait from his shoulders. He played his last match as the T20I captain of Team India, in the T20 World Cup game against Namibia.
Speaking in a presser, Ravi Shastri was asked whether Kohli will give up ODI captaincy as well. Responding to this, Shastri gave a major hint as he said that Virat Kohli might quit the ODI captaincy in the near future. He said:
“In red ball cricket, India has been the No1 team in the world for the last 5 years under Virat Kohli. So unless he wants to give up or if he is mentally fatigued and says he wants to focus on his batting – which can happen in the near future, don’t think it will happen immediately – it can happen,”
He added:
“The same might happen with the ODI. He might say he wants to focus just on Test captaincy. It is his mind and body that will make that decision. He won’t be the first, there are many players in the past who have had very successful tenures and captains and then given it up to focus on batting”
Meanwhile, along with Virat, India’s head coach Ravi Shastri along with his support team also bid bye to the Indian cricketers as their tenure for their respective jobs came to an end after India’s campaign in the World Cup.
While Rahul Dravid has been named as the next head coach of Team India, Rohit Sharma will be leading the T20I team as captain in the upcoming home series against New Zealand