RCB Player Virat Kohli Finally Breaks Silence on Quitting Captaincy Amid IPL 2025

For the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, no player has been more closely associated with an IPL team than Virat Kohli. The 37-year-old is still the only player in the history of the competition to have represented the same team in every IPL season. The former India captain did, however, make the startling admission that he did think about changing teams at one point in his career in an interview posted on RCB's social media website.

The right-hander's leadership career started in 2013 when he was named RCB captain. In 2014, he became India's Test captain, and by 2017, he was the all-format captain. During his tenure, Kohli established new benchmarks for performance and fitness. However, the 36-year-old declared he would resign as T20I captain following India's humiliating loss at the 2021 T20 World Cup. Following a series defeat to South Africa, he soon relinquished his position as captain of the RCB and subsequently resigned as Test captain in early 2022. He talked about how captaincy was negatively affecting his mental health.

Virat Kohli Drops Truth Bombs:

The cricketer revealed during the RCB Bold Diaries podcast, “At one point, it did become tough for me because there was just too much happening in my career. I was captaining India for a period of 7-8 years. I captained RCB for nine years. There were expectations of me from a batting perspective every game that I played. I didn’t have this sense that the attention was off me. If it wasn’t captaincy, it would be batting. I was exposed to it 24×7. It did get very tough on me, and it did get too much in the end. That’s why I stepped down because I felt like if I’d decided I wanted to be in this place, I needed to be happy."

"The love that I have received is more valuable than any Silverware or any Trophy" - Virat Kohli 🤦🏻‍♂️

And the RCB podcast is titled 'Mindset of a Champion'. The irony! 🤣 https://t.co/Q8EyDEmZb7 pic.twitter.com/v1AKnt98Tp

— Aravind Sivakumar (@aravindfinalmp4) May 6, 2025

During his month-long hiatus from cricket in 2022, Virat Kohli did not even touch his bat. After stepping down as captain, Rohit Sharma assumed the position and has led India to victory in the Champions Trophy 2025 and the T20 World Cup 2024 thus far. 

Kohli further added, “I need to have a space in my life where I can just come and play my cricket without being judged, without being looked at as what are you going to do this season and what’s going to happen now."

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