India's charismatic skipper Virat Kohli has announced that he would step down as the country's T20 international captain after the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.
The announcement comes just three days after local media reported that right-handed batsman Rohit Sharma may take over as India's one-day and T20I captain after the mega tournament, slated to take place in Dubai and Oman from October 17 to November 14.
"I have decided to step down as the T20 captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October," the 32-year-old said in a social media post on Thursday, reports UNB.
Virat has, of late, faced questions over his batting and captaincy. He last scored a century in a Test match in November 2019. For 51 innings, he has not hit a hundred in any international format of the game.
Virat, who took over as India's T20I captain in 2017 after Mahendra Singh Dhoni stepped down from his position, said he took head coach Ravi Shastri into confidence before spelling out his decision, which he attributed to "immense workload" in all formats of the game.
"... considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for the last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI Cricket," he wrote.
However, Virat made it clear that he will continue to lead the team in Test cricket and ODIs.
"I have given everything to the Team during my time as T20 captain and I will continue to do so for the T20 team as a batsman moving forward," he wrote.
A right-handed top-order batsman, Kohli is regarded as one of the best contemporary batsmen in the world. He has been the national cricket team's captain since 2013. Since October 2017, he has been the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world.
In 2018, Time magazine named Kohli one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he became the only cricketer in the world to feature in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world with an estimated earnings of USD 26 million.