Why did Virat Kohli leave captaincy in T20Is: Will Kohli continue to lead India in ODIs?

Why did Virat Kohli leave captaincy in T20Is: Having quit India’s captaincy in T20Is, debates around Kohli’s ODI captaincy have stemmed up

Team India have begun a new era with a 3-match T20I series versus New Zealand, under newly inducted coach Rahul Dravid and  skipper Rohit Sharma in the shortest format of the game.

While Rohit Sharma has lead India in 18 T20Is before, which includes the 2018 Asia Cup triumph as well, he has now taken over as a permanent leader of the side, after Virat Kohli quit his role as captain following the recently concluded 2021 T20 World Cup.

Why did Virat Kohli leave captaincy in T20Is?

“I’ve decided to step down as the T20 captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October,” Kohli  had said in a statement posted on his Twitter page in September- a few days before India were to kick off their T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE.

Kohli had cited workload management as one of the main reasons behind his decision to quit the captaincy of the shortest format of the game.

He, however had stated that he would continue to be available as a player in all formats and will also remain India’s captain in ODI and Test cricket.

Will Kohli continue to lead India in ODIs?

With Kohli having made it pretty clear that he would be available in all formats as a batter and as captain in the ODI and Tests, fans and experts tried to make sense of his decision. While Kohli explicitly cited his workload management as the sole reason for him arriving at the decision, many believed a personal poor run of form off-late as one of the strong factors as well.

Recently, as per a report from the news media NDTV, BCCI top brass was about to have a conversation with Virat Kohli about the future of his captaincy in one-day internationals.

The report stated that the BCCI wants to relieve Kohli of the captaincy burden in limited-overs cricket so that he can focus on his batting and return to his dominant form before the commencement of the tour of South Africa.

It is worth mentioning that Team India will have their next limited-overs assignment in January against South Africa, in an all-format Away series which would begin with the Tests starting December 17.

Thus, if the aformentioned sources are to be believed we might well see Rohit take over as the ODI captain as well. But, with Virat himself having made his stance clear regarding his captaincy in ODIs and Tests, it makes very little sense to jump the gun to arrive at any conclusion as of now.