He kind of took me under his wings, and since 2012 he kind of groomed me as a guy who is going to take over the captaincy from him. I served as his vice-captain. I was always talking to him about what we could do in the field.
I was always his go-to guy. I was always there understanding the game and I also got confidence because I was playing a lot of match-winning knocks for the team, said Kohli.
I was also giving him a lot of field advice. I was never the type to stand there fiedling and throwing the ball back. When the game was tight, I would always go to him. I was always in sync with the flow of the game.
I was never solely focused on the scoreboard… oh these many runs and these many runs. I was more interested in how the pitch was going and what the conditions were like, what we could do to break the partnership, and other such things. He realised this early on.
That’s why it went so smoothly. I had and still have a lot of respect for him because of how he captained the Indian cricket team and obviously how he performed for so long.
When it came to MS, I never had any ill will. ‘I should be there,’ I never felt. I’ve always been very respectful of the fact that he has so much faith in me and that I can go to him and talk about anything, he said.source: the quintKohli also stated that when MS Dhoni was his subordinate, things were always very simple. It was the same when I became captain. He is constantly giving me advice, and I was able to tell him that I don’t want to use this at the moment and that we should proceed with this plan.
It was very clear and straightforward. There was no awkwardness, no ‘any of this’ (he might feel bad or I might feel bad). It never happened, said Kohli.
