Former Indian skipper, Virat Kohli has admitted that it has been difficult for him to go back to being just a player after leading the squad over the years. He decided to step down as the Indian T20I skipper after the T20 World Cup 2021 and in Tests from January of 2022 (in between, he was removed as the team’s ODI captain) bringing an end to the reign of one of the most successful Indian captains of all time.

Nonetheless, as Virat Kohli started featuring in teh XI just as a player, the Indian stalwart revealed that although he doesn’t miss it as much, there have been instances where his captaincy instincts kick in by default. Kohli explains that he required time to understand that now he has to ‘let go’ any captaincy duties that he may have had inside of him once he walked away from the post.

As per the quotes in Hindustan Times, during a chat on RCB podcast Virat Kohli said, “Of course, there is. I would be lying if I say it’s not. Because you go into a position of being responsible for everything that’s going on around you and to not be in that position, takes a bit of time to process it, understand it, and let that become normal.”

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He further added, “It’s not so much letting go because once you have decided that you don’t want to do it, you’ve already let go of it in a sense. but it’s the moments where the game is in the balance and that’s when you feel like ‘Umm, we should… Ah! And that’s when you realize that no, maybe I should not give me advice right now because the plan seems to be already made and it’s clear.”

Explaining how difficult it has been for him to let go of the captaincy duties, Virat Kohli said, “These are the kind of things that happen when you understand that ok hold on, you need to kind of hold yourself back. So, these are the only things I am talking about in those crunch moments because you’ve always been involved in taking decisions in those moments. It naturally kicks in again that ‘do I need to take that decision?’ and then you realize that ‘oh, it’s working well.”

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Shortly after Virat Kohli decided to step down as the T20I skipper, he hung his boots as the IPL captain as well. As the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were facing Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the first match of the second half of IPL 2021, RCB revealed that Virat will be relieved from his captaincy duties. A few months later, Faf du Plessis as their captain, Kohli welcomed the decision with a heartwarming message for the former South Africa captain.

Recalling the same, Virat Kohli said, “There have been so many instances as well when I would run to Faf and tell him ‘You know what? I strongly feel we should do this’. And he’s been happy enough to take it and clear enough to tell me he doesn’t want to do that at that point of time. It’s been very respectful.”