Virat Kohli has led Royal Challengers Bangalore in 132 games in the IPL and will be playing his last season as the franchise's captain.
Virat Kohli will step down as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) after the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but continue playing for the franchise as a player. Kohli, who recently announced that he will be stepping down as India's captain in the T20Is to manage his workload announced in a video posted by RCB's official handle on social media.
"To the whole RCB family, the amazing fans of Bangalore and to everyone, who has been a supporter of RCB for so many years, I had an announcement to make. Spoken to the squad this evening, before the second leg of the tournament starts, to inform everyone that this is going to be my last leg in the IPL as the captain of RCB.
"Spoke to the management this evening, [it] was something on my mind for a while. As I recently announced stepping down from [India's] T20 captaincy as well to manage my workload, which has been immense over the last so many years and I want to be able to continue to be committed to the responsibilities I am fulfilling and I felt, I needed this space to refresh, to regroup and be absolutely clear in how I want to move forward," Kohli added.
Kohli, who has been associated with the Bangalore franchise since the inception of the IPL in 2008 mentioned that he has made it clear to the management that he can't see himself playing for any other team in the IPL and will keep playing for RCB till his last IPL game but said that with mega-auction coming, the side needed to move in a different direction, and hence the decision.
"RCB is gonna go through a transitional phase with the big auction coming in next year. I have made it clear to the management that I can't think of me being in any other team than RCB and that has been my commitment from Day 1. I will continue to be an RCB player till I play my last game in the IPL," Kohli added.
Kohli said that it has been an amazing journey of 9 years as the leader of RCB experiencing joy, frustration but thanked all the fans and the team management for all the support.
Kohli has led RCB in 132 games out of 199 he has played in the IPL and the side has won 60 games while losing 65 of them.
With seven league games remaining in the 2021 edition, Kohli would want to end on a high and give the fans silverware and end on a high.
RCB resume their campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi on September 20.
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