He said a few things that indicated he was interested in the captaincy, according to an excerpt from Sridhar’s book. The former fielding coach also mentioned how then-head coach Ravi Shastri advised Kohli not to chase the captaincy and instead respect Dhoni and his decision.
The former head coach made it clear to him that he would be given the white-ball captaincy when Dhoni felt it was appropriate. One evening, Ravi called him and said, ‘Look, Virat, MS gave it to you in red-ball cricket. You must respect him. When the time comes, he’ll give it to you in limited-overs cricket as well.
Unless you respect him now, tomorrow when you are the captain, you won’t get the respect from your team. Regardless of what is going on, respect him now. It will come to you; you do not need to chase it, Sridhar wrote in his book.
Sridhar’s shocking revelation sparked outrage on social media, with many criticising Kohli for being desperate for the captaincy at a time when the team already had a decorated leader in Dhoni.
The 34-year-old has denied Sridhar’s allegations, claiming that he had a friendly relationship with Dhoni and never had ill intentions towards him. He was grateful to Dhoni for taking him under his wing and grooming him to be the next captain of the Indian cricket team. He knew he’d be handed the baton when the time came.
There was no awkwardness that whole period with me and MS [Dhoni] because the reality of the situation is MS chose me as his successor, not the other way around, Kohli said on the RCB podcast.
I’d always been his right-hand man. He took me under his wing, and I’d been groomed as the guy who would take over since 2012. I had no bad intentions when it came to MS. I never felt like I belonged, he added.
