India skipper Virat Kohli who recently decided to step down as India’s T20 skipper shocked everyone as he announced leaving captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore, a franchise Kohli has played for in IPL history and has led it for 10 years.
Even though many believed the right-hand batsman is leaving captaincy of the shortest format to focus on his batting, former South Africa pacer felt Kohli took the decision to avoid fingers from being pointed at him.
“He may be just trying to put out and extinguish some fires before they happened, having relinquished the Indian captaincy. If he had two or three bad scores in the next couple of games people might start questioning whether he should give up the RCB captaincy too. So before that even comes into question, he may have decided that let me just say that this is also part of my thinking” Steyn told ESPNCricinfo.
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While making the announcement of stepping down as RCB skipper, the Delhi-based cricketer had made it clear that he will continue playing for the Bangalore-based franchise till the time he is an active cricketer, Steyn thinks it might change with the mega auction lined up next year.
“It is nice to know that he has committed himself to the team and he wants to be there to see an IPL trophy come to RCB. He has given so many years and I think that is in the back of his mind too that he is not going to leave until he wins an IPL for RCB,” the right-arm quick said.
“It does boil down to the coaches and the RCB management at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how good a player you are, you could see yourself walking. We've seen Chris Gayle leave the team. We have seen David Beckham leave Manchester United after playing for an entire lifespan for them,” he added.
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The South African cricketer then pointed out the 32-year-old’s connection with Delhi being one of the reasons that Delhi Capitals might ask him to finish with them.
“You never really know; you have these famous people playing for their clubs for a long time and who knows. Virat is originally from Delhi and for all we know, they (Delhi Capitals) could say 'come finish with us,” the 38-year-old concluded.
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
