There is no doubt that Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is one of the best batsmen of his generation. So far, Kohli has appeared in 86 Test matches, 248 ODIs and 82 T20Is, in which he has stockpiled 7240, 11867, and 2794 runs, respectively. The Delhi-born has also smashed 70 centuries in international cricket which is the third-highest tally after Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71).
However, when it comes to captaincy, the 31-year-old has still plenty to achieve. The best thing which happened to Kohli is that he spent most of his early captaincy days under MS Dhoni‘s guidance, where he learned a lot of tricks. But what is the difference between Kohli and MSD’s leadership? Well, former cricketer and veteran commentator, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has explained the difference between the duo’s style of captaincy.
Sivaramakrishnan opined that unlike Dhoni, Kohli makes a lot of changes. He stated that the majority of Kohli’s success is due to the current bowling department of the Indian team.
“Virat Kohli makes a lot of changes, MS Dhoni, when he was the captain of India, would not make too many changes. Virat Kohli likes to make changes, Horses for Courses. So different pitches, he picks different players, but all in all, Virat has had lots of success because his bowling has been of really high standards,” said Sivaramakrishnan.
Speaking about the achievements then Dhoni is the only captain in world cricket to have won all three ICC titles, whereas Kohli is yet to win a major ICC event. During the 2019 World Cup India were one of the favourites to win the coveted trophy, but in the semi-final clash with New Zealand, the ‘Men in Blue’ faced a defeat.
Sivaramakrishnan also gave his views regarding the same and said: “No, I think we have been a bit unlucky. We have been coming to the semifinals and then losing. They (Indian team) lost to New Zealand in the Semi-Final which was a bit unfortunate, But I think over a period of time, we have been very consistent.”
After the World Cup, MS Dhoni went for a two-month break but eventually ended up missing the rest of the year. However, he was ready to return as the leader of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Indian Premier League (IPL), but due to coronavirus pandemic, the BCCI had to postpone the 13th season of the lucrative league for an indefinite period.
Now cricket is slowly making the return as England and West Indies are set to play a Test series which starts from July 8. Though the future of T20 World Cup 2020 which was scheduled to take place in Australia later this year still looks doubtful.
