Team India veterans react to Virat Kohli's T20 decision; 'there must be a good reason'

Former Indian cricketers Dilip Vengsarkar, Farokh Engineer and Syed Kirmani have reacted to Virat Kohli's decision of stepping down as skipper of the T20 Indian Team post the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Dubai. In a massive development, Virat Kohli took to his social media on September 16 to announce that he would withdraw from the captainship to prepare the Indian cricket team for the Test and ODI matches.  

In an exclusive chat with Republic Media Network, the former Indian cricket captain Dilip Vengsarkar, along with Farokh Engineer and Syed Kirmani reacted to Virat Kohli's decision. Known to be one of the key players of the battling line in the late 70s and early 80s, Vengsarkar said,

''He wants to concentrate on the test matches which is very very important. So I am not surprised by this decision. I think it works for him. He is the number one batsman in the world at the moment. I would respect his decision. That is his decision and everybody would like to respect that. And the selectors should also respect that.''

Former batsman Farokh Maneksha Engineer revealed that he was shocked by Kohli's decision as he stated,

''It is certainly coming as a shock to me. I love his exuberance, enthusiasm and his aggressiveness. There must be a reason behind it because he has been an excellent captain, a great cricketer, a great ambassador for India. Even if he really steps down from the captaincy for the India team, whenever he plays for India in the future and the future captains will take his advice all the time.''

The former wicket-keeper provided a detailed insight on Kohli's decision while comparing the situation to Rahul Dravid's withdrawal from captaincy in 2007. He said,

''65 matches, no hundred (Century) from his play so probably he wants to concentrate more on his batting. That could be his intention. There could be another reason also. In the T20 world cup, India may not find a place or may not win. I'm never pessimistic about it, I'm always optimistic but I'm just foresighting that there have been incidences earlier where you see that when India is not going to be a winner in a particular tournament or series, the captain steps down and gives the captaincy to somebody else. So when they lose and come, the same captain who had stepped down is brought back into the team as a captain.''

Virat Kohli's statement

Image: @Twitter/dilipvengsarkar/syedkirmani/farokengineer/AP