Virat Kohli’s childhood coach has reacted to his former ward stepping down from the post of India’s T20 skipper. Interestingly, he opined that he sees Kohli helping out the new skipper just as MS Dhoni did in the past when Kohli was named for the top job. Speaking to news agency ANI, Rajkumar Sharma added that the 32-year-old will be more focused to win the T20 World Cup and leave the captaincy on a high.
“New captain will bring new ideas and new strategies, so it will interesting to see who is named as the skipper. Just like what Dhoni did, Virat too will like to play the same role and help the new captain. He will be more determined and focused to win the T20 World Cup as he will want to leave India’s T20I captaincy on a high.”
He revealed that Kohli had spoken to him about it; he opined that captaining a cricket crazy nation like India in all three formats can take a toll on anyone.
“It is a thoughtful decision, he had discussed with me also about this. Captaining in three formats does put a player under pressure and hence he decided to step down from T20I captaincy. We were discussing about it as it is a big issue, I was sure about it. Virat loves the Test format and he will want to lead India in the Test format for a longer period and ODI too hence he decided to step down from T20I captaincy to ease off the pressure,” he said.
Earlier Kohli had revealed that he is going to step down from the role of India’s T20 skipper and he said that he came to the decision after a discussion with the likes of Rohit Sharma and team coach Ravi Shastri. “Of course, arriving at this decision took a lot of time. After a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close people, Ravi bhai and also Rohit, who have been an essential part of the leadership group, I’ve decided to step down as the T20 Captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October.”
