Stepped down as skipper because I needed to be happy: Kohli
Anchoring another solid IPL run, he talks in an RCB podcast about giving up captaincy and finding fresh perspective on his approach to batting
Kolkata: T20 batting evolves yet Virat Kohli remains the gold standard — flexible but never frivolous, indefatigable, and the best of all, never second guesses himself. He holds the record for most IPL seasons with 500-plus runs but crucial is the awareness that makes him relevant irrespective of the changes this format has undergone. Be it attacking the ball in the Powerplay or playing the anchor, Kohli remains the mainstay by not letting the situation overwhelm him.
“In the last couple of seasons, I have consciously made an effort to evolve my game,” Kohli said on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) podcast ‘Bold and Beyond’. “And I’ve seen the results of it. Again, to the point where I had to let go of people wanting to see me, this is who I am, and just go and hit the ball. You start from wanting to hit the ball and then you go through this whole journey of becoming someone. Expectations, this and that, to a point where you feel like this is actually pulling me back. And you have to push through and again get to the point where you say, just hit the ball. That’s the only constant that remains for a cricketer.”
For the 2024 T20 World Cup, Kohli had prepared by opening the batting for RCB, aggregating 741 runs at an impressive strike rate of 154.70. But the World Cup was tougher, and Kohli went into the final with just 75 runs in nine innings trying to attack the bowlers. At 34/3, India needed Kohli to dial it back, which he did, scoring 76 off 59 balls.
“I was not able to get runs through the tournament and I am grateful that I was put in that pressure situation again. I was walking in with no confidence, and then when things are supposed to unfold for you, I get three balls, I get three boundaries and I’m like, what is this game? One day you feel like you can’t get a run and suddenly you walk into one of the biggest days of your career and things just start happening.
“And then you are put in this situation where the team needs you and this performance happens through you. And you’re like, how? And that’s when you kind of understand, okay, this is the amount of hard work, and then you arrive at the ground. And then whatever has to take place will take place. The preparation is in my hands. The results are not in my hands. I just have to stay true to my instinct. If I have to hit the ball, I have to hit the ball. That is my only responsibility.”
To arrive at this level of clarity wasn’t easy. Captaincy can affect even the most talented batter and Kohli was no different. Which is why he had to step back to get a fresh perspective – resigning from India’s and RCB’s T20 captaincy before stepping down as Test captain as well. “At one point, it did become tough for me because there was just too much happening in my career. I was captaining India for a period of 7-8 years. I captained RCB for nine years. There were expectations on me from a batting perspective every game I played.
“I didn’t have this sense that the attention was off me. If it wasn’t captaincy, it would be batting. I was exposed to it 24x7. It did get very tough on me, and it did get too much in the end. That’s why I stepped down because I felt like if I’ve decided I want to be in this place, I need to be happy.
“I need to have a space in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged, without being looked at as to what are you going to do this season and what’s going to happen now,” said Kohli. Nowhere has Kohli felt more at ease than at RCB, and so once he retired from T2OIs, he took on the anchor’s role. To say that has helped RCB would be an understatement in a season he has stayed unbeaten most times in successful chases.
