“He will help the new captain just like how MS Dhoni did” – Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma

Current India skipper Virat Kohli made a big announcement on Thursday to step down from the captaincy role in the shortest format of the game after the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE. The 32-year-old stated that he took this decision after several discussions with the leadership group and will now look to focus more on his batting.

Several former cricketers and experts shared their thoughts on the right-hander’s decision just before the upcoming ICC event. Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma also commented on his former student’s wish to relinquish captaincy from the shortest format.

Sharma mentioned that Virat will now be even more determined and focused to win the 2021 T20 WC and lift his maiden ICC trophy as a skipper. He further opined that Virat Kohli will help the new captain just like his predecessor MS Dhoni did when he quitted captaincy from the white-ball cricket in 2017.

“New captain will bring new ideas and new strategies, so it will be 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,” Rajkumar Sharma said as quoted by Cricketnext.

“Virat had discussed with me also about this” – Sharma

Rajkumar Sharma revealed that Kohli discussed this with him as well before he took a ‘thoughtful’ decision. He added that the Delhi cricketer will love to lead the side in Tests and ODIs for a longer period.

“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 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 added.

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