Virat Kohli on Saturday shocked everyone by stepping down from his role as Team India’s Test skipper. The 33-year-old cricketer issued a statement on social media to announce the same.
Saying he did his job with absolute honesty, Virat expressed the time was right to quit the leadership role. His announcement came a day after India suffered an awkward Test series defeat against South Africa. He took charge of the longest format in 2014 after MS Dhoni stepped down in the middle of the series against Australia.
After quitting his T20I captaincy last year, Virat Kohli was also removed from his leadership role in ODIs recently. With star batsman stepping down from captaincy, the reign of India’s most successful captain in the Test format came to an end.
“I want to thank BCCI for giving me the opportunity to lead my country for such a long period of time and more importantly to all the teammates who bought into the vision for the team from day one and never gave up in any situation,” he said.
As per data, Virat Kohli is the third most successful captain in the history of Test cricket in terms of Test wins behind Steve Waugh (41 wins in 57 games) and Ricky Ponting (48 in 77 games).
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) January 15, 2022