Mahendra Singh Dhoni, it seems, was contemplating the idea of handing over the reins to his deputy Virat Kohli for quite some time and he was just waiting for the right moment to step down from the limited-overs captaincy.
The most decorated skipper in the history of Indian cricket, Dhoni was under immense pressure in the last one year or so after finding his team on the wrong side of the result on majority of the occasions. Under him, the Men in Blue lost an ODI series in Bangladesh and Australia and even suffered a series defeat against South Africa at home. Dhoni’s men struggled to play well against New Zealand but managed to win the series. They also crashed out from the semi-final of 50-overs World Cup and the 2016 T20 World Cup.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli has been making waves as the Test skipper. Unbeaten in the last 18 Tests, the 28-year-old has led the team to the top of Test rankings and Dhoni, it seems, was aware of the fact that the Delhi lad was ready to lead the team across all the formats. However, his decision to resign from captaincy all of a sudden left one and all shocked. And Dhoni has now revealed why did he make the decision out of the blue.
Interacting with media for first time after stepping down, he said that he was just waiting for Kohli to get accustomed to the rigors of captaincy and felt that the time was right to give him the charge of the team. He further said even if he had led the team in the Champions Trophy in June, it would not have made much of a difference.
“Right from the start, when I left Test captaincy, I knew split captaincy doesn’t work in India, in our setup,” Dhoni said. “I was waiting for the right time. I wanted Virat to ease into the Test format. With so many games, I feel he is right there.
“Especially with Virat (at the helm), to win the Champions Trophy in England, I felt it was the right time to move on. If I would’ve stayed till the Champions Trophy, nothing much would have changed.”
Well, the decision looks a good one. The next World Cup is only a couple of years away and the Champions Trophy will be the last chance for the Indian team to test themselves in English conditions.