If I can’t be myself: Virat Kohli opens up on leaving RCB captaincy

Indian and RCB batsman Virat Kohli has said that he stepped down as the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper after the 2021 IPL season to give himself some space and manage his workload.

“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,” Kohli said on ‘The RCB Podcast’.

“If I can’t be myself in my everyday life and I can’t be myself on the field, I will change something. “Because that is who I am. That is the reason I am where I am. And that is the reason why people can connect to me at a certain level. My loved ones, people who are close to me, my friends, they connected to me because of that factor, because I’ve always been myself,” he said.

He stressed that the quality of the game was more important to him.

“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 realise that quality is far more important than quantity,” he said.

“Quantity in hard work but quality in execution. That is the key. If you go for quantity in execution, then you’re going to get burnt out,” he said.

Kohli had quit RCB captaincy after the 2021 season. He had at that time also announced that he will leave T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup. However, Kohli was removed as the ODI captain ahead of the South Africa series following the T20 World Cup. He then left the leadership role in Test matches too.

The legendary batsman also said that it was very difficult for people to understand his decisions because of what he goes through while taking such decisions.

“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’,” said Kohli, who is on the verge of playing his 100th Test.

“There’s nothing to be shocked about. I explain to people, I wanted some space and I wanted to manage my workload and the story ends there.”

Rubbishing rumours about his decision, Kohli cleared the air 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.”