Anil Kumble, head coach of the Indian cricket team, has said it was not a difficult decision for him to leave the Test captaincy for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, when he retired from the longer format in 2008.

Kumble further explained Dhoni had already proved his class by winning the T20 World Cup 2007, sans senior players, which made it easy for him to leave captaincy and retire from Test cricket, “The first phase was probably easy for me because I was old and it was easy for me to say, ‘here MS, take over’. I thought it was the right time for me to leave because MS was ready to take over the Test captaincy. He had just won the T20 World Cup and then the one-day format in Australia for the first time in a triangular series.”

According to Kumble, one of the toughest jobs for Dhoni was to manage the number of seniors players in the team. Dhoni even took a tough decision to drop two senior players from the squad for the Tri-Series in Australia in 2008. India went on to clinch the series by winning first two of the three finals.

“He achieved so much during the transition phase and also when the seniors left as well. It’s not easy just coming into a team as captain and then having so many senior players. He managed them really well. He did not just get the best out of them, but also got the best from the team,” he added.

Indian team in past has witnessed many transitions, from the retirement of Sourav Ganguly to that of Sachin Tendulkar, but this is probably one of the toughest which the Men in Blue will go through as Virat Kohli will be leading the team in limited-overs format for the first time as a full-time captain with Dhoni being a part of it.

Both Dhoni and Kohli will be under pressure as the Delhi lad will have a task to emulate his captain whereas Dhoni will have a new role in the team, mentoring youngsters and performing well with the bat.

The limited-overs series between India and England starts from January 15 at Pune.