Twitter ignited on Thursday as Virat Kohli stepped down as captain of the Indian T20I side. The right-handed top-order batsman's decision came just days after speculation intensified about his continuation in the leadership role earlier this week.
He is likely to be replaced by the team's vice-captain Rohit Sharma.
Considered as the best batsman of the current generation, Kohli is one of the all-time greats, with more than 23,000 runs across formats in international cricket.
He stands third among batsmen with the most hundreds, behind Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Australian great Ricky Ponting. While Kohli has 70 centuries to his name till date, Ponting and Tendulkar scored 71 and 100 hundreds respectively.
Meanwhile, just as Kohli revealed his decision, a section of Rohit Sharma fans began posting memes to celebrate the occasion. However, Kohli's fans began sharing their sense of sorrow over the news.
Several Kohli admirers, including former Indian pacer Munaf Patel, hailed the Delhi-born star batsman for leaving his leadership role at the right time in his career. Some fans have described the decision as "selfless," while a few referred to Kohli as "one of India's best T20 captains."
In his statement released on Twitter, Kohli said that his decision to hand over the baton came after intense deliberations with vice-captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Ravi Shastri.
"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," Kohli said.
"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 added.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly praised Kohli for keeping the future of Indian cricket in mind while making the decision.
"Virat has been a true asset for Indian Cricket and has led with aplomb," stated Ganguly, who was himself one of the most successful captains of Team India.
"He is one of the most successful captains in all the formats. The decision has been made keeping in mind the future roadmap. We thank Virat for his tremendous performance as the T20I Captain. We wish him all the best for the upcoming World Cup and beyond and hope that he continues to score plenty of runs for India," he concluded.
Virat Kohli was appointed the leader of the Indian T20 team in 2017 after M.S. Dhoni quit as the captain of the South Asian side in limited-overs.
Kohli's first experience with the captaincy, however, came in 2014, when he took charge of the Test squad after Dhoni retired from the longest format in Australia.
Kohli's Career Graph in the T20 Internationals (T20Is)
His record as captain in T20Is has been phenomenal. He has led India in 45 matches, winning 27, losing 14 and tying the remaining two. As captain, he has contributed with the bat heavily, scoring 1502 runs, including 12 fifties at an average of 48.45.