In a shock but expected move, Virat Kohli, on Sunday, announced that he will be stepping down from the captaincy after the end of the IPL 2021. With no plan of quit playing for the Bangalore-based franchise, Kohli said that he will continue to play for the RCB as he cannot see himself as a part of any other IPL team

“Hello everyone, to the whole RCB family and fans, the amazing fans of Bangalore and to everyone who has been a supporter of RCB for many years. I have an announcement to make,” Kohli said in a video message that was uploaded by the official handle of RCB.

“Spoken to the squad in the evening. Before the 2nd leg of the tournament starts, to inform everyone that this is going to be my last leg in the IPL as the captain of RCB,” the right-handed batsman added.

He said that this was on his mind for quite some time and spoke to the management before he led the team for the remaining of the IPL 2021 season.

Kohli also recently stepped down from India’s T20 captaincy as he wanted to manage his workload that has been “immense over the last many years.”

“I want to be able to be committed to the responsibilities that I’m fulfiling and I felt I needed the space to refresh, regroup and be absolutely clear into how I wanna move forward,” the Delhi batsman said.

Talking about next year’s IPL auction, Kohli said: “Also understanding that RCB will be going through a transitional phase with the big auction coming in next year, I’ve made it clear to the management that I can’t think of me being in any other team than RCB. That has been my commitment since day one. I will continue to be an RCB player till I play my last game in the IPL.”

“It has been a great journey of 9 years of joy, frustration, moments of happiness and sadness and I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and believing in me, relentlessly and unconditionally,” he continued.

“I will continue to be committed to playing for this franchise as I said because of you fans, because of what you have done for me and because of how you have made me feel over the last so many years. That is going to stay with me for the rest of life,” the right-handed batsman added.

“So thank you so much. This is just a little halt, it’s not the end of the journey. The journey will continue in the same way that it has for so many years. Thank you!” Kohli ended the message.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will start its campaign against Kolkata Knight Riders on September 20, 2021.