Virat Kohli captained India in Tests from 2014-2022.
The biggest feather in Virat Kohli’s captaincy hat, apart from the perfect home record, was the first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018-19.
However, in 2022, a day after India lost the Test series in South Africa 1-2, Virat Kohli announced that he was stepping down as India's Test captain. It was months after he quit as India's T20I captain and was removed as India’s ODI captain by the BCCI, then led by Sourav Ganguly.
Virat Kohli spoke about the toll captaincy took on him, and as his personal form dipped and India fell short of winning a Test series in South Africa, Kohli felt it was the right time to step aside from leadership.
“I ended up being in a place where I became the focal point of our batting unit and the focal point of leadership. I didn’t realize how much of a load both those things would present in my daily life, to be honest. But because I was so driven to just make sure that Indian cricket stays on top, I didn’t really pay attention to it. And that’s precisely why by the time I left captaincy, I was completely spent. There was nothing left in the tank. I was completely consumed by it. It was gruesome,” Kohli said during the RCB Innovation Lab.
He had formed a brilliant partnership with Ravi Shastri as India made it into the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup under Virat Kohli and had success wherever they played.
But Kohli thought he had lost himself along the way. He eventually believed that relinquishing the captaincy was the appropriate choice because the responsibilities left him little time for himself.
“The reason you’re given a leadership role is that people believe you can take on more and still manage it. In many ways, leadership is more about management than even coaching. It’s about understanding the people playing with you and for you and figuring out how to get the best out of them. To do that, you constantly have to be in a space where you’re not focused on yourself.
You don’t even think about whether someone is going to ask you, ‘Are you okay?’ That thought doesn’t even cross your mind. But towards the end of my captaincy tenure, I did look back and realize that no one had really asked me that question for almost nine years—"How 'are you doing?" added Kohli.
Virat Kohli had also stepped down as RCB captain in 2021 after taking over the leadership in 2013 from Daniel Vettori.