I think Virat Kohli will enjoy his cricket more now after deciding to quit India's T20I captaincy: Irfan Pathan

Virat Kohli had earlier announced that he will step down as team India’s T20I captain post the T20 World Cup 2021. A few days later he came forward to inform that it would be his last season as RCB’s captain as well. His decisions had fetched in a lot of reactions from the cricketing fraternity.

However, the former India cricketer and commentator Irfan Pathan feels that this decision of Kohli will enable him to enjoy his game more. Kohli took over the white ball captaincy from MS Dhoni in the year 2017. Ever since then,  team India hasn’t yet tasted an ICC trophy glory. Pathan also pinned his hopes on India to perform well in the marquee event.

“I think he will enjoy his cricket more now after taking this decision. India will do well with the side, the confidence, and the experience they have,” Pathan said as reported by India Today.

It will be a very, very competitive World Cup: Irfan Pathan

The T20 World Cup 2021 was previously staged to be played in India. However owing to the uncertainties of the ongoing pandemic, the tournament was shifted to UAE and Oman. Since the schedule of the high-profile tournament is out, the cricket on-lookers are all raring to watch the action unfold.

The fact that India and Pakistan are in the same pool had furthered garnered the audacity of the fans’ excitement. In the Group B team, India will be up against  Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and two other qualifying nations. However, ahead of the start of the tournament, West Indies, England and India are considered as the tough contenders. Pathan shed light on these aspects and asserted that it is going to be a very competitive World Cup.

“I always want India to win, but the West Indies will be one of the favorites. England and Australia all have good attacks, and you can never count out Pakistan. It will be a very, very competitive World Cup.” Pathan added.

Recently team India announced the updates in the squad for the mega event. Axar Patel has been replaced by Shardul Thakur in the main squad. Whereas Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, Harshal Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Venkatesh Iyer, Karn Sharma, Shahbaz Ahmed, and K Gowtham would be assisting the team to prepare for the tournament.