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Virat Kohli surprised quite a few people when he announced that he was stepping down as the Indian captain in the T20 format.
Kohli also announced this week that he would be giving up the captaincy for his IPL franchise, the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the end of the 2021 IPL.
Head coach Ravi Shastri and Kohli have enjoyed a strong relationship over the years as the two have backed each other to the hilt.
Shastri is coming to the end of his term as the ICC T20 World Cup approaches and has made it clear that he will not overstay his welcome.
Shastri is alleged to have been one of the main voices persuading Kohli to give up the T20 captaincy and the ODI captaincy. Kohli has only stepped down as T20 captain but rumours suggest that he may also consider giving up the ODI captaincy if things don’t go to well as the 2023 ICC World Cup approaches.
One reason why Shastri was pushing Kohli to quit the captaincy in the shorter format was because Kohli’s workload had increased to a point where it was impacting his batting in the test arena. The Indian captain who considered one of the best batsmen in world cricket across all formats hasn’t scored a century in the test arena for the last 2 years.
Kohli had a poor tour of England and has scored just 563 runs at an average of 26.80 during his last 12 test matches. The BCCI hasn’t named his replacement in the T20 format but everyone expects vice-captain Rohit Sharma to take over the T20 captaincy as he has shown in the IPL that he is a great captain in the T20 format.
BCCI Will Consider Anil Kumble
The BCCI is currently in the process of shortlisting candidates for the head coach position and reports suggest that former head coach Anil Kumble is on the radar once again. Kumble was the head coach when Kohli took on the captaincy role and the two never saw eye to eye. Kumble stepped down due to his differences with Kohli and the role was then given to Shastri.
However with Kohli stepping down as T20 captain and the possibility of him no longer being the ODI captain, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly feels it might be time to bring back Kumble as the new head coach.
