Former England captain Kevin Pietersen opined that the strict bio-bubble life forced Virat Kohli to step down from captaincy as there was too much on his plate.
Virat Kohli last week decided to step down from Test captaincy after a 1-2 loss against the series against South Africa. He captained India for more than 7 years in the longest format. He led India in 68 Test matches as India won 40 of those games and lost 17. India never lost a home test series under his leadership.
Pietersen sympathized with his former RCB teammate over the decision and said that the bio bubble life is difficult for modern sportsmen.
“People who are critical of the modern-day sportsmen I think are foolish because these bio-bubbles are very hard to play in,” Pietersen told PTI.
“It will be very unfair to be too harsh, to be critical. Because you have not looked at Virat Kohli. Kohli needs crowds, he gets going (from it), he is an entertainer. I think it’s very difficult for his personality to perform to the best of his abilities. A lot of players have suffered. It is the greatest job in the world. But when you put them in a bubble, it’s certainly not the greatest job because there is no fun.” he added.
Virat Kohli captained India in Test cricket for more than 7 years
Pietersen is not surprised at all by Virat’s decision. Virat left all his captaincy duties in the last 4 months. First, he left RCB’s captaincy after IPL 2021. Then after the T20 World Cup, he decided to step away from India’s T20I captaincy. Then the selectors sacked him from the ODI captaincy as they wanted to have the same captain in both white-ball formats.
Pietersen emphasized the fact that bio-bubble life is taking a toll on sportspersons as he gave an example of football players as well.
“I’m actually not surprised that Virat wants just a little bit of a break from that extra pressure because it’s damn difficult playing in these bubbles,” Pietersen said.
“It’s very difficult to judge all International sportsmen, be it premier league footballers or any sportsman around the world, playing in a pandemic. As a batter, I feed on the energy of players, and there are a lot of these players, be it in football, rugby or tennis,” he added.
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