Former team India captain in all formats Virat Kohli has spoken up on his decision to quit the captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, which came following the conclusion of last year's Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Royal Challengers Bangalore will have a new captain in the 2022 season of the IPL which they will field for the first time in March for the 15th rendition of the league.
Speaking about his resignation on "The RCB Podcast", the former captain said he "wanted some space and I wanted to manage my workload and the story ends there".
Kohli said people should not be shocked about his decision of giving up the helm at the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“I'm not someone who holds onto things more than I should," he explained. "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. Because 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. There's nothing to be shocked about.”
There were speculations about his reason for quitting the franchise's captaincy. He dismissed all of them, 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. 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 realize that quality is far more important than quantity."
Kohli praises Rahul, Chalal
Kohli also used the opportunity to praise batter KL Rahul and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, dubbing them the "most transformative" players in the league. Rahul debuted in the IPL in 2013, playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, He then played for them again in 2016.
"The only two people who come to mind for me are KL [Rahul] and Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal]," he said. "KL Rahul was at RCB in 2013 along with Karun [Nair] and Mayank [Agarwal]. KL Rahul was never a guy who was looked at as a T20 specialist. He was part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2015 and Avinash Vaidya was our manager before. He approached me because he was in touch with KL Rahul, and he was not getting any game time. And I had seen him play for India,
"I hadn't seen much of KL since he left RCB, and I had heard he is doing well in first-class cricket. He was very young when he was at RCB, and I was already playing for India and we were regularly playing for RCB. So, we never really connected in a very detailed manner."
Kohli then shared a 'wow' moment that he got from watching Rahul.
"We wouldn't spend so much time with each other," he said. "I had seen him play in Australia in 2014 when he made his Test debut and I felt like, 'Wow! He's seriously worked some wonder on his game. He's come back as an amazing player, and he started off so strongly in Australia.' I was very impressed with his body language, his confidence, his demeanor."
Kohli then went on to talk about Chalal, who was featured in the Men's Cricket World Cup in 2019.
"Same with Yuzi," he continued. "He wasn't getting many opportunities before in the IPL and he came to Bangalore, and a guy who always wanted to take the ball and to bowl the way he did in Chinnaswamy was unbelievable. His life changed from there.
"These two are the two stories that I can think of which in front of me, I felt like were huge milestones in their careers and that happened because of the IPL and the opportunity that is presented."
