In a matter of four months, Virat Kohli has resigned as the T20I and Test captain, and he ha been sacked from ODI captaincy as well. In September, he announced resignation from T20I captaincy after the World Cup. In the first week of December, the BCCI replaced Kohli with Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain, and when many expected him to continue as Test captain for another couple of years, Kohli surprised everyone by dropping the bombshell of stepping down as India’s Test captain last week.
Weighing in on Virat Kohli’s decision, former fast bowler Atul Wassan said nothing has come in as surprise for him because following India’s poor show at the T20 World Cup, it was only a matter of time before the 33-year-old took the call to step down as captain in all formats.
As per the quotes in ANI, Atul Wassan said, “Nothing shocks me. What shocked me was MS Dhoni quitting Test captaincy in the middle of the series in Australia. I think the way things have been going by the last couple of months India’s debacle in the T20 WC there was pressure on him. He is not getting runs.”
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He further added, “At times, he is pointing fingers at other players and as a captain, he must do that to egg them on and I totally support him for that but the problem was that earlier he was leading by example but lately, the thing is his batsmanship has come down.”
Atun Wassan pointed out BCCI made the decision easy for Virat Kohli after taking away his ODI captaincy. Wassan reckons Kohli’s aim would have surely been to lead the team at the 2023 World Cup in India and once that opportunity was taken from him, Virat decided to shift his focus compmwtely towards his batting given the little dip he has endured in the last couple of years.
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Elaboarting the same, Atul Wassan said, “Every batsman, every player goes through that and it could accentuate that he was captaining all three formats. He also started the conundrum when he said he doesn’t want to do T20 captaincy which was the right decision but I think the board actually took it in a skewed manner and he never expected that he would lose his 50-over captaincy because his goal was to win the World Cup. This was what was missing from his cupboard.”
