Brian Lara shocked at Virat Kohli’s decision to give up T20I captaincy

Legendary cricketer Brian Lara is shocked by Virat Kohli's decision to step down as India skipper from the T20I format after the ICC T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to begin on October 17. Kohli made this brave call on Thursday (16 September), citing that he wants to relieve some burden and focus more on his batting.

 “Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the past 8-9 years playing all three formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space fully ready to lead the Indian Team in Test and ODI cricket.

Brian Lara was taken aback by Kohli’s decision. He felt Kohli was doing a tremendous job as he led India to many memorable wins under his leadership, especially on away tours. Kohli led India 45 times, winning 27 and losing just 14 of those.

“I was in shock because I think he’s (Kohli) done a tremendous job, played against all the big countries- South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia- beating all of them, and for me, he has done a tremendous job,” Lara said during a video interaction with cricket.com.

Incidentally, this will be Kohli’s first and final assignment with regards to leading the side on the global stage in the T20 format. Kohli has featured in five editions of the T20 World Cup and has won two Player of the Match awards as well. Lara feels by relinquishing captaincy, Kohli might be able to concentrate more on his batting.

“This is actually his first (T20) World Cup as captain, so this will end his career as a captain after that. It’s a big shock. But the kind of intensity that he plays with, I feel that sometimes be good to take a step away, concentrate may be on another format of the game,” Lara said.