"Moving on is a part of leadership" - Virat Kohli reflects on recent captaincy saga

Indian batter Virat Kohli stepped down from the Test captaincy after their series loss against South Africa. Earlier, he stepped down from the T20 captaincy and was sacked as the ODI captain in a controversial move by BBCI. In an interview, Kohli said you can still be the leader without being the captain of the team.

On an episode of 'Fireside chat with VK', Virat cited MS Dhoni's example and revealed that MS was still a leader when he was not the captain of the side. "You do not need to be a captain to be the leader. When MS Dhoni was in the team, it was not like he was not the leader, he was still the guy from whom we wanted to have inputs. To win or not win is not in your hands, the striving for excellence and to be better every day, is not something you can do short term. When it comes to a culture, it will last beyond your playing years and your responsibility."

"To add to that, moving on is also a part of leadership, to understand the right time to do that," he added.

Speaking further, he said that one should embrace all roles and responsibilities, and said that sometimes a player can contribute more just as a batter. "Everything has a tenure and time period. You obviously have to be aware of that. People might say 'what this guy has done' but you know when you think of moving forward and achieving more, you feel like you have done your job," said Virat Kohli.

"Now as a batsman maybe you have more things to contribute to the team. You can make the team win more. So take pride in that. You don't need to be a captain to be a leader. As simple as that," he added.