IPL 2023: I Was Never Someone Who Was Just Standing, Throwing The Ball Back – Virat Kohli On His Leadership Abilities

Former India captain MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have been superstars of the Indian Cricket team for over a decade. MS Dhoni is the only Indian to win three ICC trophies for India, on other hand, Virat Kohli could not take India to an ICC championship title and fell shorts in the knockouts and finally stepped down from Indian captaincy in all formats.

During a candid interaction on RCB Podcast, Kohli revealed about playing under Dhoni’s captaincy and also opened up about their relationship with Dhoni, he said that he was always part of the leadership group.

“The reality of the situation was MS chose me. It was not the other way around. When you realize that, as someone who was 23, I was always under his wings as vice-captain. I always had conversations with him about what we can do, and my suggestions,” Kohli stated.

Virat Kohli said that his leadership position also helped him to play match-winning knocks for the team and it helped him to understand the match situation and play accordingly he also added he gave a lot of input to his captain on the field during his tenure as vice-captain for the Indian team.

“I was always his right hand. It also helped the fact that I was playing match-winning knocks. He knew I understood where the game was going and what I needed to do. And also I was giving him a lot of input in the field. I was never someone who was just standing, throwing the ball back,” he said.

Despite his contribution to Indian cricket, the 34-year-old has come under a lot of criticism, especially during his captaincy tenure, where he failed to win a single ICC trophy. In his final tournament as captain, India failed to even qualify for the knockouts in the 2021 T20 World Cup.

Since 2012, I Was Groomed To Be The Next Captain: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli revealed that he was groomed as captain since 2012, Kohli admitted that he has huge respect for MS Dhoni for his performance and his contribution to Indian cricket.

“Since 2012, I was groomed to be the next guy, who is going to take over. I always had and will have huge respect for him. How he captained the team, and how performed for the team for so long. I never had any ill intentions for MS,” he stated.

Kohli struggled for a couple of years before he bounced back during the Asia Cup 2022 and then hit a splendid match-winning performance against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Virat Kohli will play for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2023 and will look to win his maiden IPL Championship.