Delhi: Former Team India captain Virat Kohli has finally broken his silence on the decision when he said goodbye to the captaincy of the Indian team. Earlier he was removed from the captaincy of the T20I team. After this, the responsibility of leadership in the ODI format was also snatched away from him and the command was handed over to Rohit Sharma.

Although he continued to get support in Test cricket for a long time, he also left the Test captaincy after the overseas series against South Africa in the beginning of 2022.

Mental and emotional pressure became the reason

Recently, in the third edition of RCB Innovation Lab’s Indian Sports Conference, Virat Kohli told that the burden of captaincy gradually became very heavy for him. According to him, being the mainstay of the team’s batting along with the additional responsibility of captaincy completely exhausted him mentally and emotionally.

Virat Kohli said that he was so engrossed in his passion to keep Indian cricket at the top that he did not even try to understand the pressure on himself. With time, the situation became such that he had almost lost all the energy to give and he was completely tired.

Confusion between performance and results

Kohli also told that being the captain, he was under pressure of dual responsibility. If the team won, but their individual performance was not good, questions would arise. At the same time, if he scored runs but the team lost, he still had to face criticism.

He said that it was very difficult to balance this dual pressure and he was constantly trying to manage himself on both fronts.

This situation had become quite challenging for him mentally.

Credit given to Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathore

Virat Kohli also recalled the difficult phase of his Test career, especially during the years 2021 and 2022 when his form was affected. He told that after this his grand comeback in Test cricket could be possible in 2023.

Kohli gave credit for this comeback to head coach Rahul Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathore. He said that the support and guidance of these two played an important role in helping him regain his confidence, whenever he meets them, he expresses his heartfelt gratitude to them.

In this way, Virat Kohli explained in detail for the first time how emotionally difficult the decision to leave the captaincy was for him and the real reason behind it was the continuously increasing mental pressure. This revelation by Virat Kohli shows that top level captaincy is not just about performance but also huge mental pressure. It was not easy to strike a balance between constant expectations and criticism. His decision seems wise, as it saved both his sport and mental health.