The transition of captaincy in Indian cricket teams is not always smooth. It gets complicated when you have a strong candidate in the mix during the tenure of an experienced hand.
An example of it is happening right now. While there is no clarity from the BCCI’s side on whether Hardik Pandya is their long-term choice for India’s Twenty20 captaincy, the player himself has made statements that hint towards it. On the other hand, all-format skipper Rohit Sharma has also said that he hasn’t decided on his T20 future.
Even during the days of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a successful captain, there was speculation over his limited-overs captaincy after he took the call to retire from Test cricket (2014-15). After Virat Kohli took over the Test team’s reins, there was an impatience regarding Dhoni’s leadership future with the white-ball team.
Such a situation can lead to two power centres in the team, but coach Ravi Shastri managed the situation expertly by guiding Kohli well. R Sridhar, the fielding coach of the India team at that time, has revealed this detail in his new book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket team’ written by cricket writer R Kaushik.
Sridhar highlights how Kohli was quite eager to become the white-ball captain as well after being appointed captain of the Test team.
“There was a time in 2016 when Virat was very eager to be the captain of the white-ball team too. He said a few things that showed he was looking for the captaincy,” Sridhar writes in his book, which reflects primarily on his seven-year coaching tenure with the Indian cricket team as part of the Shastri-led support staff.
Shastri stepped in and advised Kohli to wait for Dhoni to hand him the white-ball mantle.
“One evening, Ravi called him and said, ‘Look, Virat, MS gave it (the captaincy) to you in red-ball cricket. You have to respect him. He will give it to you in limited-overs cricket, too, when the time is right. Unless you respect him now, tomorrow when you are the captain, you won’t get the respect from your team. Respect him now, irrespective of what is going on. It will come to you, you don’t have to run behind it’.”
Kohli took the advice well and became India’s all-format captain in 2017 when Dhoni stepped down. Their bond grew and Dhoni played under Kohli for the rest of his career, actively chipping in with his inputs.
Kohli led India till 2022 when he stepped down from T20I captaincy post the 2021 T20 World Cup. He wanted to remain the ODI captain, but the BCCI replaced him with Rohit. Kohli stepped down from Test captaincy as well after the 2022 tour of South Africa.
