Virat Kohli has decided to keep mum on the captaincy issue since announcing his decision to quit as India’s T20I skipper once the T20 World Cup gets over.

With no questions taken from the media at the virtual unveiling of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s blue jersey — which they will be donning (when they resume their IPL 2021 campaign versus Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday in Abu Dhabi) to pay tribute to frontline workers amid the pandemic — even the opportunity to ask Kohli a bit more on his decision didn’t exist.

Kohli, though, did find scope to once again make it clear that he and his teammates care little about the analysis and assessments of people “outside of the team”, something he says quite often when attending news conferences as the India captain.

“People outside have got jobs to do, so they will analyse one thing or the other. Outside, there are many analyses and data points, but the game is never based on that. The game has never been about information from the outside.

“The game is all about reaction, belief in certain moments, game plans that you set out to achieve as players and making sure you have the will, commitment and the drive to execute those plans. So it’s as simple as that. The more simple you keep it, the less distraction you face from the outside,” the skipper responded, talking about the break in this year’s IPL and if it could affect RCB’s momentum.

At the end of the first half of this IPL, RCB are placed third in the standings with 10 points from seven matches. For Kohli, he had his first RCB nets on Friday after coming out of quarantine.

“Having played this game for so long at this level, you do understand that even if you have seven wins in a row, you still have to start the eighth game with the same kind of commitment,” he said.

Faith in Hasaranga

RCB do have reasons to feel more confident going into the second half of this IPL as leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga’s arrival in the squad, along with his Sri Lanka teammate and pacer Dushmantha Chameera, adds to their options.

In other words, Hasaranga, who bamboozled the Shikhar Dhawan-led India in the T20Is in Sri Lanka this July, shouldn’t be having much of a problem to adjust in UAE conditions, which Kohli too pointed out.

“The replacements we have got are two guys who know these conditions... and their skill sets will definitely be of huge help to us playing here in the UAE,” Kohli emphasised.