In the opening episode of the RCB Podcast Season 2, former India skipper Virat Kohli spoke at length about the leadership transition when MS Dhoni decided to relieve himself of captaincy duties. Kohli, who shares a close bond with Dhoni and under whose leadership he made his international debut, also underlined that he was always Dhoni's 'right-hand man'.
Kohli and Dhoni shared the Indian dressing room for 11 years and the former took over the captaincy duties once the latter decided to relinquish captaincy. In a recent episode of the RCB Podcast, Kohli admitted that Dhoni picked him to be his successor and started grooming him since 2012.
"With me and MS there was never a question of any awkwardness in that whole period. The reality of the situation is MS choose me," Kohli said.
"He kind of took me under his wings, and since 2012 he kind of groomed me as a guy who is going to take over the captaincy from him. I was his vice-captain. I was always having conversations with him about what we can do in the field. I was always his right-hand man. I was always there understanding the game and I also got confidence because I was playing a lot of match-winning knocks for the team," he added.
Before becoming the national team's captain, Kohli served as Dhoni's deputy for a substantial period of time. In the Podcast, Kohli revealed that he always used to offer his suggestions to Dhoni in the field and pointed at it as the main reason behind the smooth transition in captaincy.
"I was also giving him a lot of input in the field. I was never someone who was just standing there fielding and throwing the ball back. I always used to go to him when the game was tight. I was always with the feel of the game. I was never really only looking at the scoreboard .. oh these many runs and these many runs. I was more into what’s the pitch doing and what’s the conditions are like, what can we do to break the partnership.. all those kind of things. He understood that very early," Kohli continued.
"That’s why it was very smooth. I always had and still have a huge respect for him for how he captained the India cricket team and obviously how he performed for so long.
"I never had any kind of ill intentions when it came to MS. I never felt like ‘I should be there’ I always was very respectful of the fact that he has so much trust in me and I can go and talk to him about anything," he added.
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