India wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul opened up on playing under different captains – MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma during his career which started in 2014-15 on the tour of Australia. Rahul has been a pillar of the Indian team for the past few years, making his debut under Dhoni’s direction, thriving under Kohli’s guidance, and now developing into an essential part of Rohit’s system.
Rahul revealed the various leadership qualities of the captains he played under while playing international cricket. Rahul has served as the captain of the Indian team on multiple occasions.
Talking about MS Dhoni, Rahul talked about how he builds relationships with each person in the team as the boys are ready to fight for him.
“I have been captained by such great leaders, starting with MS Dhoni, while he was playing, you know he was the captain, he was my captain, my first captain. I have seen how he handled the team and his calmness, the things that he does behind the scenes like building a relationship with each person are something that I have learned from him. You know, you need to build a relationship where these boys will fight for you and will be with you. That is something I learned from him”, KL Rahul said in a YouTube Podcast BeerBiceps.
The Passion, The Aggression Brought In, He Set The Standard Really High: KL Rahul On Virat Kohli
Under Kohli’s direction, Rahul rose to fame and said that the 34-year-old fostered a culture in which the players sought to improve upon themselves.
“Then Virat Kohli was our leader for six-seven years and the thing is that the Indian team did under him, the stats are there to be seen and it was phenomenal. the passion, the aggression brought in, he set the standard really high, and his way of leading and captaining was like leading from the front and showing the team how to achieve greatness.
He did that and we all jumped on board, we got inspired by the things that he was doing and we tried to be a better version of ourselves and that is something that Virat created and gave each player the power or the realization to do that you don’t have to settle for mediocre. You can push yourself to be better, work on your fitness, work on your diet, and the small things as a team we didn’t pay enough attention to, we started paying attention to all these things and I think the results were under Virat were because of that”, KL Rahul said.
India was the no.1 ranked Test team for five consecutive years under Virat Kohli and won their first Test series in Australia under his captaincy.
He Knows Each Person’s Strengths And Weaknesses: KL Rahul On Rohit Sharma
The 31-year-old said talked highly of Rohit also and said he understands the game really well.
“Rohit Sharma, who is like so sharp, as a leader, his strategies, he does a lot of homework before the game, he knows each person’s strengths and what he will do and he’s put under pressure, where you need to attack him or where are the flaws in his technique and like he is really really good at strategies and understanding the game. All these things are the things I have learned from these people,” he said.
Rohit will captain India in the upcoming WTC 2023 final and the 2023 ODI World Cup.