Virat Kohli is officially India's captain in all three formats of the game. The ace batsman, who has been captaining India gracefully in Tests, replaced Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the skipper in the limited-over formats as well, after the man from Ranchi decided to quit captaincy. Kohli is aware of the massive shoes he has to fill but is also looking forward to see the dashing wicketkeeper-batsman play his game freely.
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The upcoming India vs England ODI and T20 series at home, which starts on January 15 in Pune, is going to be Kohli's first major test in the limited-over formats. India, after defeating England in the recently-concluded five-match Test series 4-0, will be eager to destroy the Three Lions in the limited overs series as well. As far as Kohli's captaincy is concerned, the man has led India in 17 ODIs so far, winning 14 of them and losing the rest. He is yet to captain India in T20 internationals.
With Dhoni still around but without any pressure on him, Kohli will be able to extract the most from the man who is known for his sharp cricketing brain as well as skills. The new captain can just not seek advice from his predecessor but also allow the man to return to his vintage form of hard-hitting.
Indian cricket is really looking forward to a smooth transition of responsibility from one great player to another.
"It's a win-win situation for the new captain coming in, still having that guy for advice, for his inputs, for the cricketing brain purely that he has. But what I'm really, really happy about and what I'm most pleased about is the fact that he'll be able to play free cricket, he'll be able to express himself as the aggressive MS Dhoni that we knew when he came into the team," Cricbuzz quoted Kohli as saying in a BCCI interview.
Kohli has a huge respect for Dhoni. It was under the Jharkhand man that Kohli made his debut for India, which is always a special occasion for any cricketer. With Kohli being guided by Dhoni for most part of his international career, the former sang praise for backing him in international cricket.
"For me he's always going to be my captain because I started my career under him; he's handing over the leadership to me (but) for me he'll always be my captain. He's the person who guided me initially; he gave me opportunity; he gave me ample space and ample time to grow as a cricketer, who saved me from getting dropped from the team, many a times," the star Indian player said.
