New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli took to social media to announce that he'll step down from the captaincy of Bangalore-based franchise after Indian Premier League (IPL) Phase 2. Apart from stepping down as RCB captain, Virat had also recently announced to step down as Indian cricket team's T20 captain after the T20 World Cup. However, Virat has already made it clear that as long as he plays in the IPL, he will only play for Bangalore. In IPL, Virat has been playing for Bangalore since making his debut in IPL in the year 2008.
Under Virat's captaincy, Bangalore still has never won an IPL trophy but has reached the IPL final once. Meanwhile, former South African fast bowler Dale Steyn, who recently has announced retirement from all forms of cricket, has made a big prediction about Kohli regarding the IPL. Steyn believes that in future, Kohli might leave Bangalore and play for a new team in the IPL.
"He may be just trying to put out and extinguish some fires before they happened, having relinquished the Indian captaincy. If he had two or three bad scores in the next couple of games people might start questioning whether he should give up the RCB captaincy too. So before that even comes into question, he may have decided that let me just say that this is also part of my thinking," Steyn said on ESPNCricinfo.
"It is nice to know that he has committed himself to the team and he wants to be there to see an IPL trophy come to RCB. He has given so many years and I think that is in the back of his mind too that he is not going to leave until he wins an IPL for RCB," Steyn added.
"It does boil down to the coaches and the RCB management at the end of the day. It doesn't matter how good a player you are, you could see yourself walking. We've seen Chris Gayle leave the team. We have seen David Beckham leave Manchester United after playing for an entire lifespan for them. You never really know; you have these famous people playing for their clubs for a long time and who knows. Virat is originally from Delhi and for all we know, they (Delhi Capitals) could say 'come finish with us."