On Saturday (January 15), Virat Kohli stunned the cricket fraternity by announcing his resignation from Test captaincy following India’s series defeat against South Africa.
Kohli made the announcement on his social media handles after seven years in the role in which he took India to unprecedented success in both home and away conditions.
Despite Kohli stepping down as T20I captain in September and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sacking him as India’s ODI captain last month, the expectation was that he will continue as the leader in the longest format of the game.
Among those who were left perplexed by the star batter’s announcement was his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma who called it an ‘astonishing decision’ but claimed it was not a decision taken in hurry.
Talking on India News, Sharma said, “It is an astonishing decision. I will not want to comment too much on this because it is his personal decision and I will not want to say for what reason he has left captaincy.
“I will not be able to comment too much on what he has undergone till I know the actual picture. I can say that he has not taken this decision in a hurry.”
The veteran cricket coach went on to lavish praise on the job Kohli did as Test captain which saw him take India to the number one spot in the ICC Test rankings.
“I believe he has had a huge contribution as captain in Indian cricket. He will be one of the most successful captains. When he became the captain the India team was at the 7th spot in Test cricket and today they are No. 1,” said Sharma.
In his seven-year tenure in the top job, Kohli led India to 40 victories in 68 Test matches making him India’s most successful captain in the longest format of the game.
