MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have been among India’s most successful captains. Both have enjoyed playing together and under each other’s captaincy.
MS Dhoni has been India’s most successful captain. He helped the team win three ICC titles and made the team an unbeatable force at home, especially in white-ball cricket.
He had a different cricket brain that he used and he remained very cool and calm even in the most difficult situations.
Under Virat Kohli, India started winning Test matches overseas. It was the first time that India won a Test series in Australia under his leadership.
Kohli has helped inspire a generation of Indian cricket fans, not just with his cricket but also with his awareness about fitness and health.
It was under his leadership that for the first time India started playing with five proper bowlers and challenged the opposing batsmen.
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He had a brilliant stint as India captain. Perhaps the fact that he did not win an ICC title was the only setback for Kohli as captain.
Both he and Dhoni gave their best for the team as captain, and the captaincy did not put pressure on them but brought out the best in them.
Sanjay Bangar in MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli
Sanjay Bangar compares Virat Kohli’s captaincy to that of MS Dhoni. 🔥
– MS Dhoni played the waiting game – Virat Kohli wants India to dominate overseas. pic.twitter.com/MjKmgEmXAr
– Vahini🕊️ (@fairytaledustt_) August 25, 2024
Sanjay Bangar, having seen both of them up close, spoke about their different leadership styles on the recent Rao Podcast.
“MS, as a captain, made sure to eliminate all risks and thought about all angles before acting. He believed that if I get into a dilemma, I must know everything about it, I must reduce all risks and only then I will take a decision.”
“He would wait for the opponent to make a mistake and that really helped him achieve phenomenal success in ODI cricket or white-ball cricket where he mastered the art of handling the bowlers and read the game so well. That was his hallmark,” Bangar said.
He then went on to talk about Virat Khli, who had a very different style of captaincy. While MS Dhoni was calm, cool and collected, Kohli was aggressive and direct. A bit of fighting with the opposition fired him up and brought out the best in him.
“As far as Virat Kohli is concerned, what motivated him was the fact that India had to improve their performances abroad. Because in India we knew that, with all due respect to the opposition, if you come to India, India wins 75 per cent of the time, you will have to play badly to lose in India because that is the skill and talent that we possess.
“Basically, the challenge is to win from outside and that’s where Virat’s contribution has been huge in terms of identifying that the team is going to play with five pure bowlers, where the batsman will have to take extra responsibility, but we make sure that we dismiss the opposition twice,” Bangar said of Kohli.
Both Kohli and MS Dhoni had brilliant numbers as India captain. Including Test matches and ODIs and T20Is, Kohli led India in 200 matches, winning 128 matches and losing 55. He maintained a winning percentage of 64.
On the other hand, MS Dhoni led India in 332 matches as captain, with 178 matches played and 120 lost, maintaining a win percentage of 53.61. He is the only Indian captain to have won three ICC trophies as captain.
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