Virat
Kohli reportedly refused the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI)
offer of a farewell match as a captain before stepping down as India’s Test
captain. Kohli played his 99th Test match at Cape Town against South Africa. He
will play his 100th Test, a career landmark, at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy
Stadium. “One match makes no difference. That is not how I am,” Kohli told a
BCCI official.

Also Read: Who will be India’s next Test captain as Virat Kohli steps down?

Kohli
stunned the cricket world on Sunday when he stepped down from Test captaincy,
issuing a release on Twitter.

As
Kohli refused to accept BCCI’s offer, his illustrious stint as India’s Test
captain, which started in Sydney in 2015 after MS Dhoni stepped down, came to end with a 2-1 series defeat against South Africa.  

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Before
announcing his decision, Kohli conveyed his message to give up Test captaincy to
head coach Rahul Dravid, his teammates in the dressing room at Newlands and
then to the BCCI.

Kohli,
who led India to a historic Test series win in Australia in 2018-19, was bitterly
disappointed with the defeat against a transitional South African side despite
taking a 1-0 lead in the first Test in Centurion.

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The
Indian batting talisman has recently lost his ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma
after stepping down as a T20I captain. A controversy had erupted between Kohli
and BCCI because of their claims and counterclaims.

Though
BCCI was happy with Kohli’s Test captaincy, Kohli gave up the burden of
captaincy to focus more on his batting.

Also Read: 3rd Test: South Africa beat India by 7 wickets on Day-4, wins 3-match series 2-1

Of
late, Kohli has been struggling to play big innings since he scored a hundred
against Bangladesh in the 2019 Kolkata Test.

“I
have always believed in giving my 120 per cent in everything I do, and if I
can’t do that, I know it’s not the right thing to do. I have absolute clarity
in my heart and I cannot be dishonest to my team,” Kohli said in a tweet.

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Kohli will now play in all three
formats as a top-order batter.