The pressure that comes with leading an Indian Premier League (IPL) team and the fact that he has a young family could have played a big role in Virat Kohli deciding to quit as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after the completion of this year’s edition of the lucrative tournament in Dubai, feels former South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn.
RCB announced late on Sunday that Kohli will step down as the captain of the team after the end of IPL 2021 season. The announcement was made through a video posted by the franchise on social media, three days after Kohli said that he will be quitting as India’s T20I captain after the men’s T20 World Cup in the UAE next month. Kohli will continue to be a part of the RCB squad.
“He’s been with RCB from the very beginning. I don’t know, as life goes on you start to prioritise things. He’s (Virat) got a young family right now and captaincy can weigh heavily on the brain, and your personal life can also heavily weigh on you,” said Steyn to T20 Time Out on espncricinfo on Monday.
Steyn, who retired from all forms of cricket late last month, added that, “Maybe, relinquishing a little bit of that responsibility (captaincy) and just being able to focus on his batting is a good decision at this time of his career.”
