Indian cricket captain and star batsman Virat Kohli on Thursday confirmed that he will step down as captain of the national T20I side after the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November.
While announcing his decision on the microblogging platform Twitter, Kohli said that his decision came after "a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close people", including limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Ravi Shastri.
Kohli also insisted that he pondered the heavy workload that he has as a player, considering he is a key member of the side in all the formats, before finally deciding that he should quit his captaincy so as to focus on his batting.
"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", Kohli wrote.
"Of course, arriving at this decision took a lot of time. After a lot of contemplation and discussions with my close people, Ravi bhai and also Rohit, who have been an essential part of the leadership group, I've decided to step down as the T20 Captain after this T20 World Cup in Dubai in October", he added.
"Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for 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", the Delhi-born cricketer concluded.
The 32-year-old said that he had informed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah about his decision, but wants to continue leading the team in the Test and ODI formats.
With Virat exiting captaincy in the shortest format, Rohit will now be the frontrunner to replace him in the T20Is.