West Indies cricketing legend Brian Lara on Saturday (September 18) said he was “shocked” with Virat Kohli's decision to step down as India’s T20I captain after the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE and Oman in October-November this year.

Last week, Kohli announced that he will step down as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup 2021, and Lara said it was a big shock for him that the upcoming global event will be his first ICC T20 event as captain and sadly it will be last one too, as he has been doing a “tremendous job”.

Lara said during a video interaction with cricket.com: “I was in shock because I think he's (Kohli) done a tremendous job, played against all the big countries -- South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia -- beating all of them. This is actually his first (T20) World Cup as a captain, so this will end his career as a (T20I) captain after that. It's a big shock.”

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He added, “But the kind of intensity that he plays with, I feel that sometimes it might sometimes be good to take a step away, the concentrate may be on another format of the game. I’ve had these issues as well when I was playing when a couple of times I stepped down as captain as it became very, very stressful.”

The West Indies great signed off by saying, “I am not in his (Kohli's) shoes but I'm sure he made his decision, not just for the personal decision but a decision that serves Indian cricket as well.”

(With IANS Inputs)