- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
DAYS after announcing his decision to give up the India captaincy in the T20 format, Virat Kohli has taken yet another call to relinquish a major responsibility. The ace batsman on Sunday (19) said he was set to step down as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise he has been leading since 2013, after the end of the 2021 season which resumed after a four-month break in the United Arab Emirates the same day.
Last week, Kohli said he was quitting the national captaincy in the T20s to manage his immense workload and the World Cup starting in the UAE and Oman next month will be last assignment.
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Kohli, however, added that he will continue to play for RCB till his IPL career got over.
“This will be my last IPL as captain of RCB. I’ll continue to be an RCB player till I play my last IPL game. I thank all the RCB fans for believing in me and supporting me,” Kohli on RCB’s Twitter handle.
“I spoke to the management this evening. This was something that was on my mind… I needed the space to refresh, regroup and be absolutely clear in how to move forward,” the 33-year-old batsman said.
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Kohli took over the captaincy of RCB from New Zealander Daniel Vettori in 2013 but in eight seasons that he has led the side so far, Kohli has not been able to lead a single title, the best being finishing runners-up in the 2016 edition when RCB narrowly lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final.
Bangalore, one of the original franchises of the IPL, have not been able to win a single title so far and finished as the second-best on three occasions.
“RCB is going to go through a transitional phase with a big auction coming up next year… I’ve made it to clear to the management that I cannot think of being in any other team than RCB,” he said.
Bangalore are well-placed in this year’s edition with 10 points from seven outings and look strong to make the playoffs. They will play their first game since the resumption of the tournament on Monday (20) when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi.
