Former Indian captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly have said he was captured aback by Virat Kohli‘s choice to renounce leadership duties from the shortest format of the sport.
Last month, Kohli dropped a bombshell when he declared that he would not a long-time captain of the Indian team in the most concise format after the T20 World Cup. Kohli told the immense workload and the inclination to focus on Test and ODI captaincy as the reasons behind his preference.
Speaking on Salaam Cricket, Ganguly clarified there was no burden from the BCCI on Virat Kohli to leave the captaincy. He also loved the 32-year-old, stating that it’s hard to captain in all 3-formats for such a long time. Ganguly said:
“I was surprised (that Virat Kohli decided to step down as T20 captain). This decision must have been taken only after the England tour and it is his decision. There was no pressure from our end, we didn’t tell him anything. We don’t do things like this because I have been a player so I understand. It is very difficult to be a captain in all formats for this long,”
Ganguly continued:
“I was a captain for six years, it looks good from the outside, there is respect and all that. But you get burnt out on the inside and it happens to any captain. Not just to Tendulkar or Ganguly or Dhoni or Kohli but to the captain that will come up next as well. It is a tough job.”
Virat Kohli also stated that he will be stepping down as RCB captain following the passing of the 14th season of the IPL. The champion cricketer completed his IPL captaincy profession without a title as the Bengaluru-based franchise was beaten out in the playoffs.
“Virat is human, not a machine” – Sourav Ganguly
Kohli has continued a lean patch by quite high standards in the last 12-15 months. Nevertheless, as Ganguly said, it doesn’t come as a surprise as he thinks every player who plays for a long period of time, like Virat, is bound to go through a lean patch. Ganguly replied:
“This happens (dip in Kohli’s form). Virat has been playing for about 11 years, not every season can be great. He is human not a machine. So I am not surprised. His graph has gone up so high, then it came down, then it went even higher and that is when you see a player like Virat. If you play for a long time this sort of up and down will happen.”
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