Kohli will take time to adapt to life after captaincy, feels Sanjay Bangar
Xtra Time Web Desk: After stepping down as Team India captain from all the formats, Virat Kohli would be playing his first match as a player in the first ODI against South Africa.
Kohli earlier had relinquished as T20I captain after the end of World Cup last year and soon after he was removed as ODI captain. Now he had decided to step down as Team India's captain from Test Series, thus bringing to an end of glorious seven years of his tenure.
Former all rounder Sanjay Bangar felt that Kohli will take some time to adapt as a player, since it is his first match as a player not as a captain anymore. He, however, expects the 33-year-old to pass inputs to stand-in captain KL Rahul, citing both the individuals share a great “rapport”.
"It's not easy straightaway being a captain for a long period and then playing as a player. He is not going to be in the circle at certain point, he'll have to man the boundary. When you have time between the ball he might wonder what he would have done, maybe the changes or what he would have said to the team during breaks or before the game. So those are things that will linger on for some amount of time, it's not gonna go away in a jiffy," said Bangar on Star Sports when asked about the transition.
"But KL Rahul the guy who's leading at the moment has got great rapport with Virat and I believe because of the rapport he can easily pass on the inputs during match time,” the former cricketer added.
Bangar put up examples of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar while sharing his thoughts ahead for Kohli with captaincy burden no longer be there and also explained how giving up the leadership role had a positive impact on their batting.
"Virat the kind of phase he is in a good four-five years of cricket remain if not more. Look at the history of Indian cricket Rahul Dravid gave up captaincy. Sachin Tendulkar gave up captaincy and they continued to play for a longer period and maybe their performance also increased."
Bangar further added, "The way I look, Virat Kohli is fabulous as a leader and he did that job really well for over six years. Now it's time to unveil Virat Kohli 3.0 because he can be as damaging a batsman with no responsibility. So I look forward to some great batting performances from him because Virat Kohli the batsman is what sets the world on fire."
