Former South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has backed Virat Kohli to peak with the bat once again, saying relinquishing captaincy will certainly relieve the star batter of pressure across all formats of the game. Stressing that the need to focus on his young family would have played a part in his decision to quit Test captaincy.
Kohli was playing as a non-captain for the first time in more than 5 years on Wednesday as he took the field in India’s first ODI against South Africa under KL Rahul’s captaincy in Paarl. Kohli quit as Test captain earlier this month after India lost a 3-Test series 2-1 to South Africa last week. He made the announcement in an unforeseen social media post that took the cricket world by storm.
“I suppose bubble life can make it really difficult. You take on so much responsibility as a captain, then you have got your family and you’re travelling, it really does boil down to family at the end of the day. I personally think so,” Steyn told Star Sports on Wednesday.
“He has got a young family right now, captaincy if you’re a single man being a professional sportsman, it’s almost like a selfish thing, we all have to focus on ourselves to be able to get the best out of us and provide the best for the country. But the moment a young family comes in, some other things don’t matter much.
“Now I think, Virat Kohli has relinquished captaincy, he can focus on his family and then just focus on his batting. You might even see a better Virat Kohli now.
“For the bulk of his career, he was a single man, he was captain, he didn’t have to worry about that kind of stuff but now there are so many new things that have come up in the game.
“I do think this will free him up and we’ll probably see he hasn’t scored an international hundred in 2 years. Maybe today could be the day as his first game as a non-captain,” Steyn added.
