'Virat, you have to respect MS': How Ravi Shastri handled 'eager' Kohli who wanted Dhoni's captaincy

The change of captaincy in Indian cricket teams is not always plain sailing. It becomes cumbersome when you have a strong candidate in the mix during the incumbency of an experienced player.

An example of it is going on currently. While there is no certainty from the BCCI’s end on whether Hardik Pandya is their long-term choice for India’s T20 captaincy, the player himself has made statements that hinted towards it. At the same time, all-format captain Rohit Sharma has also said that he hasn’t decided on his T20 future.

Even during Mahendra Singh Dhoni term, there was conjectures over his white ball captaincy after he decided to retire from Test cricket (2014-15). After Virat Kohli took over the Test team’s captaincy, there was a tetchiness concerning Dhoni’s leadership future in the limited overs format.

Such a situation can result in two power centres in the side, but then head coach Ravi Shastri managed the situation by guiding Viar Kohli well. R Sridhar, the former fielding coach of the India team, has revealed this detail in his new book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket team’ written by cricket writer R Kaushik.

The former fielding coach underlines how Virat Kohli was quite eager to become the limited overs captain as well after becoming the 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.

Ravi Shastri stepped in and advised Kohli to wait for Dhoni to hand him the limited overs captaincy.

“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'."

Virat Kohli took the advice well and became India's all-format captain in 2017 when MS Dhoni stepped down. Their bond grew and Dhoni played under Kohli for the rest of his career.

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