Virat Kohli, widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers in history, has been instrumental in winning matches for India since his debut in 2008. Despite his outstanding record, the 34-year-old has faced a lot of criticism, particularly during his captaincy tenure, where he was unable to lead India to victory in any ICC trophy. While he did lead the team to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, they were defeated by arch-rivals Pakistan. During the 2019 World Cup, under Kohli’s leadership, India suffered a semi-final loss to New Zealand, followed by a second-place finish in the 2021 World Test Championship. In his final tournament as captain, India failed to make it to the knockouts in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Kohli learned the captaincy trade from none other than MS Dhoni, from whom he took over the captaincy, first in red-ball cricket, and then in limited overs format. During a candid interaction on RCB Podcast, Kohli revealed about his time playing under Dhoni’s captaincy and also opened up about their comfortable relationship, which made the transition to his captaincy very easy.
“The reality of the situation was MS chose me. It was not the other way around. When you realise that, as someone who was 23, I was always under his wings as vice-captain. I always had conversations with him about what we can do, my suggestions. I was always his right hand. It also helped the fact that I was playing match-winning knocks. He knew I understood where the game was going and what I needed to do. And also I was giving him a lot of input in the field. I was never someone who was just standing, throwing the ball back”, he said.
“I was always going to him if the game was tight. I was always with the feel of the game. I never looked at the scoreboard and thought ‘these many runs, these many balls’. I was thinking about what we can do to break the partnership, how the pitch is behaving, how our bowlers are bowling and things like that. He understood that early. Since 2012, I was groomed to be the next guy, who is going to take over. I always had and will have huge respect for him. How he captained the team, and how performed for the team for so long. I never had any ill intentions for MS.
“I never felt like I should be there (in his place). I was very respectful of the fact that he has so much trust in me and I can go and talk to him about anything”, he added.
Pointing out that there was never any awkwardness when he took over the captaincy reins, Kohli explained, “When I became captain, it was the same. He gave advice all the time and I was able to tell him ‘listen I don’t want to use it at this point in time. Let’s go ahead and use this plan’. It was very clear and simple. There was never awkwardness. That was an amazing transition.”
Dhoni played his last match for India in July 2019. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 World Twenty20, 2011 World Cup, 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, 2010 and 2016 Asia Cup, 2010 and 2011 ICC Test Mace and also the 2013 ICC ODI Championship. The wicketkeeper-batter will once again take the field in IPL 2023, where he represents CSK.
