Virat Kohli Resigns As India’s Test Captain
Hours after India’s Test series loss against South Africa, Virat Kohli has announced to step down from his captaincy.
Hours after India’s Test series loss against South Africa on 14th January, Captain Virat Kohli at the post-match team meeting in the dressing room, made an announcement and a request. To the surprise of those in the dressing room, Kohi said that he had decided to step down as India’s Test captain. He also asked his teammates and the support staff to keep the news to themselves. Then on Saturday 15 January 2022 evening, Kohli made the announcement on Twitter “It’s been 7 years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance every day to take the team in the right direction. I’ve done the job with absolute honesty. Everything has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India, it’s now,” In the tweet, he also thanked Ravi Shashtri and MS Dhoni for believing in him and supporting him.
Kohli had first led the side in Test cricket back in 2014 against Australia. His last game as captain was the Cape Town Test in South Africa. Virat stepped down as India's captaincy in the T20 in November last year. Kohli had mentioned that he took the decision to manage his workload and wanted to lead the side in Tests and ODIs. However, Rohit Sharma replaced Kohli as the captain in ODIs on December 8. This marked the end of Kohli’s journey as a skipper in ODI as well. According to a report by news agency PTI, Kohli's relations with the BCCI got affected after the explosive press conference ahead of the departure to South Africa. BCCI Secretary Jay Shah in a BCCI release said, "Virat Kohli has been one of the finest captains to have ever led the Indian cricket team. We wish Virat the best for the future and hope that he will continue to make memorable contributions on the field for the Indian team," Jay Shah congratulating him for his exceptional tenure was a way of accepting his resignation by the board.
