After Virat Kohli took over the reins of the Test team, there was impatience about the future of Dhoni’s leadership on the whiteball team.
Indian cricket changing his team’s captaincy isn’t always smooth. Things get complicated when you have strong contenders during an experienced hand’s tenure.
An example of this is happening now. There is no clear information from the BCCI side as to whether Hardik Pandya has been selected as his long-term Twenty20 captain for India, although the player himself has issued a statement suggesting so. All-format skipper Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, said he has yet to decide on his future at T20.
Even in the era of successful captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, there was speculation about his limited surplus captaincy after he accepted the call to retire from Test cricket (2014–15). After Virat Kohli took over the reins of the Test team, there was impatience about the future of Dhoni’s leadership on the whiteball team.
Such a situation could lead to his two centers of power within the team, but coach Ravi Shastri handled the situation adeptly by guiding Kohli well. R Sridhar, who was his coach on the field for the Indian team at the time, has revealed this detail in his new book ‘Coaching Beyond’ written by cricket author R Kaushik. Sridhar highlights how keen Kohli was to also be Whiteball captain after being named captain of the Test team.
“There was a time in 2016 when Virat was very keen to captain the Whiteball team.
Shastri intervened and advised Kohli to wait for Dhoni to hand over the white ball cloak.
“One night the rabbi called him and said, ‘Look, Virat, MS gave it to you (captain) in red ball cricket. You have to respect him he will also give it to you in exclusive cricket when the time comes.If you don’t respect him now he won’t be respected by the team tomorrow when he becomes captain Hmm. No matter what happens, respect him now. It will come to you, so you don’t have to chase it.”
Kohli took that advice well and became India’s all-format captain in 2017 when Dhoni stepped down. Their bond grew and Dhoni played under Kohli for the rest of his career, contributing positively to his contributions.
Kohli led India until 2022 when he stepped down as T20I captain after the 2021 T20 World Championships. He wanted to remain ODI’s captain, but BCCI replaced him with Rohit.