Two chairmen of selectors who oversaw Kohli's rise welcome his decision of quitting T20 captaincy

Ending all the rumours and speculations surrounding the captaincy of India’s white-ball teams, Virat Kohli had on September 16 announced his resignation effective after the upcoming T20 World Cup. The move was greeted with some scepticism around the reasons that would have compelled Kohli to give up leadership from the shortest format at the international level.

However, for people who have followed and been an instrumental part of the successful journey of Kohli in white-ball cricket, the movie was on expected lines. 

Two former heads of the national selection committee at the time when Kohli entered the big stage and flourished have backed Kohli’s move and instead, they have been “expecting” it to happen sooner rather than later.

Dilip Vengsarkar, who was the chairman of the selection committee that first picked Kohli for ODI cricket on India’s tour of Sri Lanka said that the “tremendous pressure” of leading in all formats and an underwhelming record in the T20 format as captain would have propelled Kohli to give up captaincy. 

He also highlighted the empty cabinet of Kohli, who has not won a major trophy as the captain of India or the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, would have also played its part in guiding him towards the decision.

There have been questions on the timing of his decision that whether he should have waited for the T20 World Cup to conclude before announcing but for Vengsarkar,  Kohli got the timing of his decision“perfect”. He also hoped that Kohli would be able to end the drought of an ICC trophy in his last opportunity in the shortest format.

“I was expecting it. He’s been leading India and has been the No 1 batsman in all formats for almost eight years. He’s been under tremendous pressure to perform because we expect a lot from him every time he goes into bat. Besides that, he’s not done exceptionally well in the T20 format as captain. Even in the IPL, he hasn’t led the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a single tournament win. That must’ve played on his mind too,” Vengsarkar said to TOI.

“The timing of his decision has been perfect. The only thing I hope now is he wins the World Cup and signs off as an India T20 captain on a high. It could be his last hurrah as T20I captain."

Another former chairman of the selection committee,  Sandeep Patil, welcomed Kohli’s decision to step down after the T20 global event. Patil had presided over the selection of the Indian team from 2012 when Kohli was rising to new highs with every passing game and earning a name for himself with superlative performances, especially in white-ball cricket. 

He suggested that relinquishing leadership of the T20 format will help Kohli to give his everything to only his batting which would be crucial for both him and the team in the coming days.

“I welcome Virat's step. Captaincy does play on your mind. Captaining the side and concentrating on your batting at the same time is not an easy job, especially as there's so much cricket these days. This step will 100% help him focus more on his batting,” Patil said to TOI.  

However, Patil pointed out a “communication gap between BCCI and Virat” on this matter as the board had dismissed a TOI report that reported Kohli’s decision before the skipper made his move public. He suggested the BCCI should accept Kohli’s decision as it is purely his call to when to go.

"It seems that there's a big communication gap between BCCI and Virat. You can't have Virat say one thing and the BCCI another. Just a couple of days back, there was a story in TOI about him quitting as a white-ball captain to focus on his batting. However, the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal rubbished that news quickly. This is purely Virat's decision, and the BCCI should just accept it,” Patil emphasized.

Virat Kohli took to his Twitter account to announce his decision to give up the captaincy of the T20 format after the completion of the T20 World Cup later this year.