While Kohli couldn’t take his team to the trophy, RCB have had numerous great moments under his tenure.
Virat Kohli has been the face of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) since the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. He is the only player to play for a single franchise for all these years and has had a massive impact on the team.
He also captained RCB for a long time after taking over from Daniel Vettori in 2013 and remained in the position till 2021. While Kohli couldn’t take his team to the trophy, RCB have had numerous great moments under his tenure, which will forever remain iconic in the league’s history.
In a chat on the RCB Podcast, Kohli explained why he left the captaincy after 2021, stating that it became tough for him to handle everything. He said he wanted to play cricket without being judged, and that was only possible if he relinquished the captaincy.
“I was always in this space where I was like — what do I… what do I do? And I was exposed to it 24/7. It got very, very tough on me, and in the end, it became too much. That’s why I stepped down — because I felt like, if I’ve decided I want to be in this place, I need to be happy. I need to have a space in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged.”
Virat Kohli captained RCB 143 times in his IPL career, winning 68 matches (including super over wins) at a win% of 47.55. Under him, RCB qualified for the playoffs in four seasons – 2015, 2016, 2020, and 2021.
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He also took them to the final in 2016, where they came close to winning, only to fall short by eight runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Still, he did a reasonable job as a captain, and it didn’t affect his batting, for Kohli kept scoring runs season after season and remained one of the best performers of RCB.
He even left the captaincy at the right time ahead of a fresh cycle to allow the new captain to settle and play a team of his choice. Amidst all this, Kohli’s batting went up and down, but he always found ways to step up in crunch situations with the willow.
Ahead of this season, there were talks about Kohli being reappointed as the captain since other options weren’t as experienced, but RCB chose Rajat Patidar. Kohli must have had a say in this decision, and it was wise not to put additional captaincy pressure on him at this stage of his career.
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