I had spoken to AB de Villiers in 2019 about quitting RCB's captaincy: Virat Kohli

Recently, Virat Kohli announced that he would step down as team India’s T20 captain post the upcoming T20 World Cup. A few days later, he also announced that this will be his last season as RCB’s skipper and that he will continue to play for the franchise as only a player from the next edition. These decisions of Kohli had led to a lot of discussions among the cricketing fraternity.

However, Kohli has stated that he had a word with his RCB teammate and good friend AB de Villiers about the same. The star batter asserted that he wanted to have a peaceful environment and that had eventually prompted him to think about giving up RCB’s captaincy.

“About this decision, I had spoken to AB in 2019. It’s not new. With the IPL, I was always in a space where I wanted to create a peaceful environment. We had this discussion and then I thought we will give it one more year. A restructuring of the management happened and things were much better in 2020. I felt a little more relaxed in that stage,” Virat Kohli said while speaking to Star Sports.

I am privileged to play under Virat Kohli: AB de Villiers

RCB has had an impressive run in this year’s IPL. The side has exuded their dominance by pulling some impressive victories in this season. RCB has qualified for the play-offs and has presented itself as one of the toughest contenders of this edition. AB de Villiers has thus opened up on Virat’s captaincy and stated that he has been privileged to play under him.

“Virat Kohli has had an unbelievable run as captain. I am privileged to play under him. I have been a fan of him letting it go for the last few years purely because of the pressure he has taken on board over the years with the Indian team and the IPL. I felt that this could be an environment where he could have a little bit of fun.

“Sort of step away from Indian cricket and have a little bit of fun in the T20s in the IPL with all the friends and then go into the high-pressure environment with India in all the formats,” he asserted.