“I Was Left With No Belief, I Was Gone” – Virat Kohli Recalls His RCB Captaincy in IPL 2021

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli recently recalled the times when he was at the stage of his captaincy term with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) men’s team in the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, before the second leg of IPL 2021 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kohli announced that he would be stepping down as the captain of the franchise after leading RCB for nine seasons as well. Back in 2013, Kohli took over the captaincy duty from Daniel Vettori.

Kohli, who has been playing against Australia, said that he was completely down and out at that point in time. After he stepped down, Faf du Plessis took over the charge as RCB’s captain as well.

“When my captaincy tenure was coming to an end, I was left with no belief, to be very honest. I was gone. The tank was absolutely empty. But that was my own perspective. That was just me as an individual saying that ‘I have seen so much of this, I just can’t manage it, I just can’t handle it anymore’,” Virat Kohli was quoted as saying in RCB Bold Diaries.

“But the next season, new people came in, they had new ideas, there was another opportunity. They were excited. Maybe as an individual, I wasn’t that excited, but they created the energy and we reached the playoffs three years in a row. And now we start every season with the excitement that there was before. I feel excited now,” he further added.

However, Virat Kohli also recalled the 2019 edition of the IPL when RCB started their campaign with six losses on a trot. Although they won five out of their last eight games, they finished at the bottom of the points table as well.

“In 2019, we lost 6 matches in a row. I clearly remember after we lost the sixth game, we had a get-together in the evening. I walked in, I was the captain. I was completely gone. I couldn’t feel anything. I didn’t recognise myself and I was like I had no belief left whatsoever. When I walked into the post-match get together, the first person I saw was AB. He walked to me and we stood face to face and we were doing is like we had never lost six games in a row in our lives and we played 15 years of international cricket almost together,” Virat Kohli again stated.

However, Kohli shared this while speaking to the RCB women’s team ahead of their Women’s Premier League (WPL) match against UP Warriorz on Wednesday, March 15 as well.