NEWS
Follow UsIndia's outgoing T20I skipper Virat Kohli said he will not change his approach towards the game as he will carry on the intensity even without captaincy. After five years as the senior men's team captain, Kohli's bowed out with a nine-wicket win over Namibia in their Super 12s match in the T20 World Cup on Monday.
"That's (playing with intensity) never going to change. If I can't do that I will not play anymore. Even when I wasn't captain before I was always keen to see where the game is going. I'm not going to stand around and do nothing," Kohli said in post-match presentation.
Kohli took over the captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2017 and led India in 95 T20Is, winning 61 and losing 31 matches. He described his five-year stint as an honour and great fun.
"As I said it's been an honour, but things have to be kept in the right perspective. This was the right time for me to manage my workload. It's been six-seven years of intense cricket every time we take the field and it takes a lot out of you. It's been great fun, great bunch of guys and we've really performed well as a team," he said.
The Namibia match was also the final match for Ravi Shastri as the team's head coach along with his support staff. Kohli praised the group as a part of the extended family.
"Big thank you to all those guys, they've done a tremendous job all these years keeping the group together. Great environment with them around, they were an extended part of our bigger family. They've contributed immensely to Indian cricket as well. A big thank you to all of them from all of us," Kohli said.
India's elimination from the Super 12s stage was confirmed a day before after New Zealand beat Afghanistan. Kohli maintained that his team were not brave enough in the beginning of the tournament when they lost against arch-rivals Pakistan and New Zealand.
"I know we have not gone far in this World Cup, but we have had some good results in T20 and enjoyed playing together. It's a game of margins, T20 cricket. You talk about two overs of cricket with intent in the first two games and things could have been different. We were not brave enough as I said. We are not a team that will give excuse of tosses," he said.
Kohli shuffled the batting order, sending in Suryakumar Yadav at No.3 as the right hander scored an unbeaten 25 off 19 balls.
"Surya didn't get much time, it's a T20 World Cup and I thought it might be a nice memory of him to take back. As a youngster you want to take back some good memories from a World Cup," he said.
Gerhard Erasmus, who led Namibia to the Super 12s in their first ever World Cup, said that the team hasn't been able to process magnitude of their achievement.
"Quick turnarounds between games so we haven't been able to really soak in the experiences. Only once we go back we'll be able to realise we played an awesome level of cricket," he said.
"Good foundation for us if we want to make the next step. (Next year T20 World Cup) that's another awesome thing for us to look forward to. We've probably inspired the next generation of cricketers in Namibia," the 26-year old said.