Virat Kohli announcement of stepping down as Indian cricket captain of T20 side - Good move or wrong timing?

The Indian cricket team fans, for a fair majority, had a surprise in store for them on Thursday. On his official social media accounts, Virat Kohli posted that he was stepping down from captaincy from the Twenty20 International team after the end of the ICC World T20 2021.

The main reason for him stepping down from the captaincy was, “Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI Cricket. I have given everything to the Team during my time as T20 Captain and I will continue to do so for the T20 Team as a batsman moving forward. After a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close people, Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri) and also Rohit, who has been an essential part of the leadership group, I’ve decided to step down as the T20 Captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October,” Kohli tweeted.

The tweet once again hit the BCCI’s hiding mechanism out of the park. For ages, the BCCI has been trying to become the ultimate spin doctors in trying to hide, manipulate and create confusion. But, this makes it clear. There was an indication that Kohli was considering leaving captaincy from at least one format. The only uncertain thing was when was he going to do it.

Understanding the situation with Virat Kohli

Now, when one looks at the bare numbers of Virat Kohli ever since his captaincy, it is second to none personally and for the team. In the period when he was captain, Kohli averaged 48, 72, and 56 in T20Is, ODIs, and Tests. Kohli is India’s most successful captain ever. In 95 ODIs, he has won 65 while in 45 Twenty20 Internationals, he has won 29. In Test cricket, he has won 38 out of 65. This has also included great performances in England and the historic 2018/19 triumph in Australia. He also helped India break their jinx in Sri Lanka in 2015 when Kohli captained for the first time.

On the surface, his record is not at all bad. Then why the decision? The numbers hide some important aspects. India has not won a single ICC tournament in his tenure. They lost in the semifinals of the 2015 and 2019 ICC World Cup. In 2016, they lost the T20 semifinal at home while the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy saw India losing the final against Pakistan.

In all those instances, Kohli’s captaincy was criticised heavily either for wrong team composition or a bad decision to bowl/bat.

The batting ‘slump’?

The sentence that Kohli put out is interesting in this way. “Considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years, playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI cricket,” Kohli stated in one of the paragraphs.

This perhaps proves the point that Kohli is actually worried about his slump. His batting form in Tests has been poor in the last couple of years. His average in 2020 was 19 and in 2021, it was 29. But, in ODIs and T20Is, he actually did not suffer a dip in form. In the last two years, he averaged 47 and 43. In the shortest format, Kohli averages 36 and 115. However, the fact that Kohli’s benchmark is so high that anything under 50 seems to be a failure.

In the past few years, the assurance with which Kohli goes about his play has also gone slightly missing. Maybe, easing the captaincy in Twenty20 Internationals might bring the mojo back to his style of play. Perhaps, after the World T20, we may see Kohli go ballistic and maybe, the final frontier of South Africa might finally be conquered.

Timing of Kohli’s decision?

The fact that he is going to relinquish his captaincy after the end of the ICC World T20 2021 indicates that there is no disharmony. The transition is smooth and there are the likes of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in the wings. It must be reiterated that the records are not bad for the Indian team under Kohli. It perhaps is the high benchmark that Kohli has set that might be worrying him. His primary focus is to get out of the ‘slump’ that he is in, although the numbers do not show that except in Tests.

With his final stint as captain in ICC World T20, Kohli might go for broke and get India glory. With over a month to prepare in the same conditions thanks to the IPL, India’s cricketers seem to be the only team that look the favorites for the competition even before a ball has been bowled. The IPL and the ICC World T20 2021 could see some magic when it comes to Kohli’s captaincy. In hindsight, this could prove to be one of the best decisions in Indian cricket.