‘Takes time to process, understand and normalise’ – Virat Kohli on transitioning from captain to player
Virat Kohli talks about transitioning back to a player from captain (Source: Twitter)
A lot of statements from Virat Kohli in the recent Podcast episode hosted by the Bangalore franchise of the Indian T20 League have created headlines. This time, he talked about the challenges of transitioning back to a player after being a captain for a considerable amount of time. Kohli stepped down as the T20 Captain for India after the 20-20 World Cup, 2021; and as the Test captain in January 2022. In between, he also stepped down as the ODI captain for India, bringing an end to all of his captaincy stints across formats.
“Of course, there is. I would be lying if I say it’s not. Because you go into a position of being responsible for everything that’s going on around you and to not be in that position, takes a bit of time to process it, understand it, and let that become normal. It’s not so much letting go because once you have decided that you don’t want to do it, you’ve already let go of it in a sense but it’s the moments where the game is in the balance and that’s when you feel like ‘Umm, we should… Ah! And that’s when you realise that no, maybe I should not give me advice right now because the plan seems to be already made and it’s clear,” Kohli said on the podcast.
Virat Kohli also stepped down as captain of Bangalore after stepping down as India’s T20I captain
“These are the kind of things that happen when you understand that ok hold on, you need to kind of hold yourself back. So these are the only things I am talking about in those crunch moments because you’ve been always involved in taking decision in those moments. It naturally kicks in again that ‘do I need to take that decision?’ and then you realise that ‘oh, it’s working well,” he added.
Virat Kohli also stepped down as the captain of the Bangalore franchise shortly after announcing his decision to step down as the Indian T20I captain. When Faf du Plessis was appointed captain, Kohli welcomed the decision with open arms.
“There have been so many instances as well when I would run to Faf and tell him ‘You know what? I strongly feel we should do this’. And he’s been happy enough to take it and clear enough to tell me he doesn’t want to do that at that point of time. It’s been very respectful,” Kohli exclaimed.
