The need to give himself some space and better manage his workload led to Virat Kohli giving up his captaincy at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Kohli had announced his decision to step down as the RCB skipper soon after quitting India’s T20 captaincy ahead of last year’s T20 World Cup. He, however, was later removed as the ODI captain before he quit the leadership role in Tests as well.
“I’m not someone who holds on to things more than I should. Even if I know I can do a lot more, if I’m not going to enjoy the process, I’m not going to do it,” Kohli said on “The RCB Podcast” about his decision to not lead the Bangalore franchise in the IPL any more.
According to the 33-year-old, it is difficult for anyone from the outside to understand his thought process.
“Because it’s very difficult for people to understand your decisions unless they are in your situation. From the outside, people have their own expectations ‘Oh! How did that happen? We are so shocked’,” said Kohli, who is on the verge of playing his 100th Test.
“There’s nothing to be shocked about. I explain to people, I wanted some space and I wanted to manage my workload and the story ends there.”
Kohli claimed that there was no complexity in his decisions and highlighted his willingness to keep things simple. “There was actually nothing at all. I keep my life very simple and basic, when I wanted to make a decision, I made a decision and I announced it.
“I didn’t want to think about it and contemplate it for another year. That would’ve done nothing to me, nothing to the environment I’m part of. Quality of life is something very important to me. And the quality of cricket is something very important to me.
“Over a period of time, you want to do what you’re doing day-in-and-day-out and you want to do as much as you can, but at the end of the day, you have to realise that quality is far more important than quantity,” he asserted.
Throwing light on his principles further, he said: “Quantity in hard work but quality in execution. That is the key. If you go for quantity in execution, then you’re going to get burnt out. If I can’t be myself in my everyday life and I can’t be myself on the field, I will change something.
“Because that is who I am. That is the reason I am where I am. And that is the reason why people can connect to me at a certain level. My loved ones, people who are close to me, my friends they connected to me because of that factor, because I’ve always been myself,” he signed off.
