The openly growing differences between Indian limited-overs captain MS Dhoni and Test captain Virat Kohli are bound to take its toll on the overall performance of the Indian team. As per sources, the Kanpur ODI was a classic instance when two contrasting ideologies in the form of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni clashed, and this turned out to be a vibe of great negativity for the Indians as they lost the first ODI, which they should have easily won.
A day before the Kanpur ODI, MS Dhoni in the pre-match conference had made it evidently clear that Ajinkya Rahane wouldn’t feature in the scheme of things as his style of play wasn’t suited for a batsman batting below number 3. However, Dhoni surprised one and all when he said that Rahane was indeed included in the playing XI. Things, though, took a turn for worse, when Rahane was sent at number 3, which is Virat Kohli’s favourite spot. This did not go down to well with the Indian Test skipper, who clearly struggled at number 4 which gave South Africa the much-needed momentum.
Apart from that, in the post match conference, Dhoni also hinted that he wasn’t happy with Kohli’s performance as the team slowed down during 35-40 overs, a period when Kohli was indeed batting. Such statements in the media have been rumored to have created massive differences within the Indian team.
Another interesting fact was that during the South African innings, Kohli, who was positioned at the boundary, kept on persuading the crowd to chant his name loudly. This could have been done in order to send a clear cut message to skipper MS Dhoni about Kohli’s rising popularity within the masses. Dhoni tried to change Kohli’s fielding position, but the latter was adamant to stay near the boundary.
According to a few former cricketers, it is obvious that Rahane and Kohli are not too happy with the expectations of MS Dhoni from them. As per the former cricketers, Dhoni is often seen siding his “favourite players” over Rahane, who has done tremendously well in Test matches.