Why Virat Kohli Quit India’s Test Captaincy In 2022: Former Skipper Breaks Silence

Virat Kohli has opened up on his decision to step away from India’s Test captaincy, describing the final phase of his leadership as physically and mentally exhausting, during the RCB Innovation Lab on Tuesday, more than four years after he walked away from the role.

Kohli had stepped down on 15 January 2022, a day after India lost the Test series 1–2 in South Africa.

The move came after a gradual leadership transition, following his earlier exits from India’s T20I captaincy and his removal as ODI skipper. His departure brought an end to a seven-year Test captaincy stint in which he led India in 68 matches and won 40, the most by any Indian captain in the format.

Under his leadership, India established themselves as a dominant force in Test cricket across conditions. His captaincy began in challenging circumstances in 2014 when he first led the side in Tests at Adelaide after an injury to MS Dhoni.

Kohli responded with twin centuries in a match that pushed Australia to the edge, even though India narrowly lost.

A year later, he guided India to a historic Test series win in Sri Lanka, their first there since 1993. Alongside coach Ravi Shastri, he went on to oversee a golden phase that included India’s first-ever Test series win in Australia in 2018–19 and five consecutive years of holding the ICC Test mace.

However, Kohli has now admitted that the demands of leadership eventually took a heavy personal toll.

“I ended up being in a place where I became the focal point of our batting unit and the focal point of leadership. I didn’t realise how much load both those things will present in my daily life, to be honest. But because I was so driven to just make sure that Indian cricket stays on top, I didn’t really pay attention to it," Kohli said.

"And that’s precisely why by the time I left captaincy, I was completely spent. There was nothing left in the tank. I was completely consumed by it. It was gruesome,” he added.

He further explained how leadership shifted his mindset completely away from himself, to the point where even basic questions about his own well-being never surfaced.

“The reason you’re given a leadership role is because people believe you can take on more and still manage it. In many ways, leadership is more about management than even coaching. It’s about understanding the people playing with you and for you, and figuring out how to get the best out of them,” he said.

“To do that, you constantly have to be in a space where you’re not focused on yourself. You don’t even think about whether someone is going to ask you, ‘Are you okay?’ That thought doesn’t even cross your mind,” he added.

“But towards the end of my captaincy tenure, I did look back and realise that no one had really asked me that question for almost nine years, ‘How are you doing?’”

Kohli added that stepping away was ultimately the right call after years of sustained pressure and responsibility at the highest level.

His Test captaincy remains one of India’s most successful eras, but also, as he now admits, by a personal toll that eventually made stepping down inevitable.