When Virat Kohli Stunned The Nation With Captaincy Resignation

image-lryve2mnVirat Kohli (X.com)

On January 15, 2022, Indian celebrated cricketer Virat Kohli took the cricket fraternity by storm as he relinquished captaincy duties across all formats with an emotional social media post. The post drew strong reactions from fans across the globe.

Months ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup, Virat Kohli quit T20 format captaincy citing workload issues. However, the batter was dropped as the ODI captain by the BCCI, citing the need for stable leadership in the white-ball format.

Regardless, Virat Kohli was expected to continue as the Test format captain, but the batter decided to pull the plug. On January 15, 2022, he shared a detailed social media post announcing his decision to step down as the captain of the Indian Test team. 

He said that for the past seven years, he has been leading the side with the utmost grit and honesty. However, Kohli claimed he cannot give his 100% as a leader anymore.

Virat wrote the team deserves a captain who is fully committed, and at this stage, he does not think he can deliver. Thus, Kohli added that he has decided to quit the post as he cannot be dishonest to his team. 

Further in the post, Virat Kohli expressed gratitude to BCCI and then head coach Ravi Shastri for showing utmost faith in his leadership ability. 

Kohli also thanked former Indian captain MS Dhoni for his support when the initial transition of power took place in 2014. 

Virat Kohli took over as the captain of the Indian senior cricket team in 2014, thus succeeding celebrated skipper MS Dhoni. He led India to multiple memorable Test victories. 

Under Kohli’s leadership, India held the top spot in the ICC rankings for the longest time. However, the lack of ICC trophies undermined his unparalleled achievements as he was subject to intense criticism post the 2019 World Cup failure.