Virat Kohli Wanted MS Dhoni’s White-Ball Captaincy In 2016, Reveals Ex-India Fielding Coach R Sridhar

Virat Kohli’s admiration for former India captain MS Dhoni is a secret to none. Their camaraderie often used to become the talk of the town when Dhoni was a part of the Indian team. Kohli, who had made his international debut under Dhoni’s captaincy in 2008, then went on to lead Team India. Dhoni handed over his Test captaincy to Kohli in 2014, after having decided to retire from the longest format of the game. However, former India fielding coach R Sridhar has recalled how Kohli was quite eager to become the white-ball captain as well.

“There was a time in 2016 when Virat was very eager to be the captain of the white-ball team too. He said a few things that showed he was looking for the captaincy,” Sridhar revealed the detail in his new book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket team’, which is written by R Kaushik.

Sridhar also revealed how the then India head coach Ravi Shastri intervened into the matter, and told Kohli to wait for Dhoni to hand him the white-ball mantle.

“One evening, Ravi called him and said, ‘Look, Virat, MS gave it (the captaincy) to you in red-ball cricket. You have to respect him. He will give it to you in limited-overs cricket, too, when the time is right. Unless you respect him now, tomorrow when you are the captain, you won’t get the respect from your team. Respect him now, irrespective of what is going on. It will come to you, you don’t have to run behind it’,” he added.

Notably, Kohli became India’s all-format captain in 2017. Not only did Dhoni handed him the mantle, but also played under Kohli’s captaincy for a few years.

Dhoni eventually announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020.

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