Virat Kohli is now free from leadership duties after giving up T20I, Test captaincy, and getting sacked as ODI skipper. Kohli is currently playing the ODI series against South Africa.
Former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has warned Kohli regarding his batting form after giving up captaincy. The 33-year-old hasn't been as consistent as he used to be before and Harbhajan feels he will now have a different pressure as a batter.
"When a captain steps down after seven years, a lot of people feel surprised in and outside the team. I myself was very surprised that he perhaps made this decision in a hurry. But obviously, Virat knows what's in his heart, what are his future plans and what he wants to do in the future. But when you are captain, things are different.
"As a batter, he'll have a different pressure upon him. We all know he's a big player but when you are captain you don't have to worry about your selection. You are always selected," Harbhajan said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Giving the example of the star cricketer like Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, and Sunil Gavaskar, Harbhajan added that no matter how big a player one is, they feel the pressure of performance.
"But no matter how big a player you are - whether you are Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, (Sunil) Gavaskar, or anyone - you feel the pressure when you don't perform. He'll feel a pressure that wasn't there for the past 7 years. But I also want to say that in these seven years he's performed the best in world cricket as a captain. I hope his performance as a batter continues to be equally good and he keeps winning Team India matches as he did as a captain."
India lost the ODI series against South Africa with the defeat in the second match at Boland Park by 7 wickets. Harbhajan called the current Proteas side the 'weakest' to beat India, which is currently led by KL Rahul.
"When India went to play the Test series, it felt like this was a quite capable and strong team which will easily defeat this South African team. But that didn't happen.
"We did win the first Test, KL Rahul batted brilliantly, Mayank scored 60-odd and our bowlers did well throughout the Test series but just because we couldn't score enough runs, we lost the Test series even after taking a lead. If you are 1-0 up in South Africa then you should win and against this team - I feel this was the weakest South African team that defeated India," he further said in the video.
