'Relief Firstly,' Says Virat When Asked About Emotions After T20 WC Campaign

Virat Kohli speaks after India's last match of the 2021 T20 World Cup.

(Photo: Twitter/T20WC)

A 9 wicket victory to finish off India's disappointing T20 World Cup campaign, and also his career as the team's T20I captain, and Virat Kohli said he felt relief when asked about his emotions during the post-match ceremony.

Having already been knocked out of the race for a spot in the semi-finals, India played Namibia on Monday night in what was effectively a dead rubber. But after the match, emotions were high in the Indian dressing room as the end of the team's T20 World Cup campaign also meant the end of Ravi Shastri and the entire support staff's stint with the team.

Virat Kohli had already announced before the event that he too would be stepping down from the T20I captaincy after the tournament.

When asked by Harsha Bhogle about his emotions after the match Virat said, 'Relief firstly'. He then went onto add, 'as I said it's been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective. I thought this was the right time for me to just manage my workload. It's been six-seven years of intense cricket and every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you.

'So... it's been amazing, it's been great fun, great bunch of guys and we've really performed well as a team. I know we have not gone further in this World Cup, but we have played well as a T20 side and it's something we have all really, thoroughly enjoyed playing together. That's been the hallmark for me and that's absolutely made my job much easier,' he said.

Virat signs off as India's T20I skipper with his successor yet to be named by the BCCI even though Rohit Sharma is being seen as the front-runner for the position.

The Mumbai Indians skipper will have big shoes to fill with Virat finishing off with a 64 percent win record? Something Harsha asked him about, as he asked Virat to reflect on the team's campaign.

'The positives for me is the way we played the last three games. It's a game of margins, T20 cricket nowadays. You talk about two overs of cricket with intent in the first two games and things could have been different.

'We are not a team that is going to make an argument about the toss because we should be able to do both things well - when you lose the toss or you win the toss. Having said that, as I said, we were not brave enough in the first two games and we suffered because of that and our group was such that we knew that afterwards, it's going to be complicated for us to go through,' he added.

While the outing against Namibia was the 150th match with Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli's partnership at the helm for India, the game was also the last as coach for Shastri whose tenure ends at the end of the T20 World Cup. Rahul Dravid has been appointed the new coach of the Indian men's team and his first assignment will be the home New Zealand series later this month.

At the post-match presentation, Virat was asked about what his relationship with Shastri and the rest of the support staff meant to him.

'It's been amazing. A big thank you to all those guys, they've done a tremendous job over the years keeping the group together. They're appreciated by everyone in the group. A great environment with them around. They just became an extended part of our bigger family. For us, it was the same faces we saw and people loved getting back to that environment and the atmosphere was great so they've contributed immensely to Indian cricket as well. A big thank you to all of them from all of us. They've done a great job for the team,' he said.

Even though Virat's own stint as the all-format skipper of India finally came to an end on Monday night in Dubai, Kohli said his on-field intensity will continue to remain the same.

'That's never going to change. If I can't do that I will not play anymore. That's been my goal from day one. Even when I wasn't captain before I was always keen to learn, always keen to know where the game is going. I'm always going to be around with my point of view, with anything I can do with the team so I'm not a guy who is going to stand around and do nothing. I will always be the guy who wants to give his 120 on the field,' he said.