When Virat Kohli gets the vibe that his captaincy is under threat, he tends to quit: Sanjay Manjrekar

Virat Kohli stunned the cricketing fraternity announcing his decision to step down as India’s Test captain on Saturday (January 15). Soon after he made his decision public, current and former cricketers came up with the messages congratulating Kohli for taking the Test team to newer heights during his seven-year stint. However, his stint as captain of India across all formats including the Indian Premier League (IPL) came earlier than expected.

It all began with Kohli announcing his decision to quit as the T20I captain post the World Cup last year even before the mega event began. Later he stepped down from RCB’s captaincy and was removed from the ODI captaincy position by the selectors with a view to having the same leader in white-ball cricket.

Ever since Kohli’s decision to quit, the former cricketers are giving their views on the matter and Sanjay Manjrekar is the latest to join the bandwagon. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, he pointed out that Virat Kohli’s stint as India’s captain came to an end across all formats very quickly over the last few months which not many saw coming.

“It’s come one after the other in a very short span of time – giving up the white-ball captaincy and IPL captaincy as well. This also was unexpected, but it is interesting that all these three resignations of important positions have come so quickly one after the other,” Manjrekar said.

He wants to make himself unsackable as captain, feels Manjrekar

Further in the discussion, Manjrekar felt that Virat Kohli didn’t want any one sack him as the captain. Moreover, he also thought the 33-year-old might not have felt safe about his captaincy and hence stepped down from the helm after the series loss against South Africa.

“I think, in some way, he wants to make himself unsackable as captain. When he gets that vibe that his captaincy is under threat, he tends to quit,” Manjrekar added. Meanwhile, BCCI has not announced a new Test captain yet with India’s next series in the whites against Sri Lanka in March. The board might take the final decision just before that series.