The UAE leg of the Indian Premier League will be Virat Kohli’s last as captain for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the 32-year-old has confirmed on Sunday ahead of KKR clash.
However, Kohli added that he will continue to be with the Royal Challengers as a specialist batsman heading into the new three-year cycle of the league, starting from the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League.
“I want to be able to be committed to the responsibilities that I am fulfilling and I felt I needed the space to be fresh, to regroup and be absolutely clear in how I want to move forward,”
he said.
Kohli has been RCB captain for nine straight seasons since first taking over the team’s leadership ahead of IPL 2013. Under his captaincy, the immensely popular franchise has won 60 and lost 65 of their 132 matches, with a runners-up finish in IPL 2016 being their best tournament result.
As captain of RCB, Kohli has scored 4,674 runs of his overall IPL career tally at an average of 43.27 and strike-rate of 134.11. Kohli has been key to the franchise’s success over the years, and it is hardly surprising that his best campaign as a player coincided with RCB’s most successful tournament to date during his tenure back in 2016.
Kohli’s decision to relinquish the leadership post with RCB comes only a few days after he also put a timer on his India captaincy in the T20Is. One of the greats of the game, Kohli confirmed on Thursday (September 16) that he will step down as India’s T20I captain after the forthcoming T20 World Cup in UAE.
Kohli has enjoyed a better win-loss record as India’s T20I captain than what he has with RCB. The Indian team have won 27 of their 45 T20Is under Kohli’s captaincy since he took over the side from MS Dhoni back in 2017.
As skipper, he has dominated the run-charts for India in T20Is. Kohli boasts of an excellent batting record as captain in the shortest format of the game, having struck 1,502 runs at an average of 48.45 and strike-rate of 143.18.
At the point of his India announcement, Kohli said concerns around his “workload” as an all-format batsman and India captain in Tests and ODIs is the major reason behind his call.
