'It was gruesome, there was nothing left in tank': Virat Kohli on leaving Test captaincy
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'It was gruesome, there was nothing left in tank': Virat Kohli on leaving Test captaincy")
'There was nothing left in tank' Virat Kohli on leaving Test captaincy Photograph: (AFP)
"There was nothing left in the tank." Virat Kohli makes an emotional, raw revelation about the "gruesome" mental toll that led him to quit India's Test captaincy.
Virat Kohli is India’s most successful Test captain, having won 40 out of 68 Tests he led the country in. The historic Test series win in Australia was the highlight of his decorated Test captaincy tenure, which lasted over seven years.
Since taking over the Test captaincy from MS Dhoni in December 2014, Kohli and then head coach Ravi Shastri’s partnership transformed India into an unbeatable Test side. However, as all good things come to an end, so did Kohli’s run as the Indian Test captain, but what led to that, the cricket giant revealed in his latest conversations.
Kohli relinquished his white-ball captaincy midway through the 2021 season, while announcing his decision to step aside as a leader in Tests after a series loss to South Africa in January 2022. His social media post (on leaving Test captaincy) broke the internet, with the BCCI replacing him with Rohit Sharma as an all-format captain. Although all kinds of rumours, including a tiff with then BCCI President and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, made headlines, years later, the champion batter has opened up about the profound burnout he experienced behind the scenes.
Speaking at the RCB Innovation Lab’s Indian Sports Summit on Tuesday (May 19), Kohli said captaining India across formats and expectations to deliver each time, with the bat and leadership, consumed him completely, while leaving him with no option to free himself from such responsibilities.
“I ended up being in a place where I became the focal point of our batting unit. And then I became the focal point of leadership. I didn’t realise how much of a load both those things will present in my daily life, to be honest.
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“But because I was so driven and motivated to just make sure that Indian cricket stays on top, I didn’t really pay attention to it. And that’s precisely why by the time I left captaincy, I was completely spent. Like there was nothing left in the tank to give. And I was completely consumed by it. So, yes, it was gruesome,” Kohli said.
“It was difficult to manage expectations of, okay, if you win, you don’t score runs, then you’re asked about your performances. And if you perform and you don’t win, you’re asked about the results. So I was always juggling between the two and trying to manage as best as I could,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Kohli has since retired from the T20Is (2024) and Tests (2025), and only features in the 50-over format for India. Elsewhere, he plies his trade in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the defending champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
Currently, his IPL team is among the three sides already qualified for the IPL 2026 playoffs.
