MS Dhoni feels Virat is ready for limited-overs captaincy

Former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who usually skipped the pre-match press meets while leading the Indian team was out to talk to the media ahead of the 1st ODI against England at Pune. This was his first interaction with the journos after stepping down from the captain’s role. MS Dhoni said that he always believed in one captain leading the team in all the formats and thus was the right call for him to hand over the reins to Virat Kohli.

According to Dhoni, he was preparing for the change for some time now and gradually brought things in a shape where he could smoothly induce the change. He also believes that Virat is well prepared and leading the limited-overs team wouldn’t be a challenge for him.

“For me the last series was the one against South Africa. That was the reason why I went to Zimbabwe. Split captaincy does not work in our scenario and my views did not change after I quit from Test cricket. Limited-overs captaincy is not a big challenge and Virat is ready for it now,”

He would now assist Kohli and being the wicketkeeper makes him the default vice captain of the team. “The keeper is always the vice captain whether announced or not and my role will be to assist Kohli. Different people like different fields so that depends on Virat and I will adapt accordingly. I will be there to give as many suggestion as possible. I will have to consult him and can’t go left and right on my own,” Dhoni said.

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A lot of people wondered why he didn’t continue till the Champions Trophy which is just around the corner but the 35-year-old said extending his tenure until the CT 2017 would have just added on to his numbers and there was no purpose to be served with that.

“It made no sense for me to continue. People even questioned me when I quit medway through the Test series in Australia. Sometimes youneed to look at the bigger picture. I knew Saha was ready and he deserved a chance. Similarly, Virat is well placed to take over the limited overs captaincy,” Dhoni said.

He also mentioned that it was Virat’s hunger to win each game that he plays and the willingness to be in the middle and be a part of the proceedings at most times is the prime reason behind his rise to the top in a short span. “From the beginning of his career he wanted to learn and there was a hunger to win matches. He wanted to be in the middle of it all.”

Dhoni will try to help him strategies against particular batsmen and pass on as much information as he can. “He will keep getting better with more responsibility. ODIs is a slightly easier format to captain and my job will be to assist him whenever I can. How the batsmen are batting, their strengths and weaknesses. Flowing of information and give him as much information as possible,” the former skipper said.

“The kind of reltion we have, if I go up with 100 ideas to him, he can so no to all because we have that comfort level. The more I can serve to him and the more he can pick and choose will be better for Indian cricket.” Dhoni concluded.