Ravi Shastri advised Kohli to quit T20I and ODI captaincy: Report

Indian skipper Virat Kohli recently announced that he would be stepping down as captain from the T20I formats soon after the upcoming T20 World Cup. A recent report has claimed that Team India head coach Ravi Shastri had advised Kohli to quit the white ball captaincy altogether to focus on his batting while continuing to lead India in Test cricket.

A BCCI official was reportedly quoted as saying, “The talk about Kohli’s captaincy started after India won the Australian series without their regular captain. It also indicates that Kohli may have to let go the ODI captaincy at some point before 2023 if things don’t go as planned. Shastri had spoken to Kohli around six months ago. But Kohli didn’t listen to Shastri. He is still keen to lead India in ODIs and that is why he only decided to let go the T20 captaincy. Even the board was discussing it as to how Kohli could be utilized more as a batsman. That is because he has a lot left as a player even now.” Virat Kohli decided to leave Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy as well at the end of the 2021 season. Some reports also suggested that a few of the Indian players were not happy with Kohli’s attitude, especially when he spoke about the team’s lack of intent following the World Test Championship (WTC) loss.

In a video statement released by RCB ahead of its first match of the UAE leg of IPL 2021, Virat Kohli said, “This will be my last IPL as captain of RCB. I’ll continue to be an RCB player till I play my last IPL game. I thank all the RCB fans for believing in me and supporting me. It wasn’t an easy decision but one that has been well thought of and in the best interest of this wonderful franchise. As I have mentioned previously in many occasions, I will only play for RCB until my retirement from the game of cricket.”