India's captain Virat Kohli has welcomed MS Dhoni's 'priceless suggestions' on the field but has also cleared that he will now be in charge in taking the calls. For Kohli the transition of captaincy of the Indian limited overs sides will be smooth as the two of them have always been exchanging ideas during a match scenario.
"It's the same thing. It's just that I am in charge of decisions now and he (Dhoni) will be giving his views, which was the case before as well. I think we both understand as professional cricketers and it'll be pretty smooth (transition)," Kohli said ahead of the first of the three ODIs against England at Pune that starts tomorrow.
BCCL
"When Dhoni was in-charge, I have always shared my point of view and thoughts with him. Eventually he has made those decisions. Sometimes it may immediately click and he makes those changes right away. Sometimes he still takes time to follow his instinct more and keep that as option B. As cricketers, we understand it is a pretty natural thing to have different perspectives about the game, about captaincy as well," Kohli said.
PTI
"Honestly, I don't feel any difference. The only thing is I am excited about is that when I will walk out for the toss tomorrow, I will be India's full-time captain. Apart from that, I don't think anything has changed mentally or in terms of environment. Everything is the same; that I have been made the captain is the only change, but my mindset hasn't changed at all," said Kohli.
Just like every batsman devises own technique to get success, it's the same for the captains, their own unique way of thinking.
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"Everyone has their own ways of expressing themselves as captain or operating things on the field, but one thing that remains constant is to win cricket games. People have different techniques but they are still able to score runs. Doesn't mean necessarily everyone has to bat like one person. Me and MS have always understood our kind of operation out there in the middle. It doesn't make anything difficult as far as I am concerned."
PTI
Now that the burden of captaincy is not there, Kohli saw Dhoni play the sort of freedom with which he used to bat when he came into the Indian team in 2004.
"With the burden of captaincy not being there anymore, I am sure he will be able to express himself as a batsman, experiment a bit with his offensive game that he displayed when he came in. It's not that he didn't afterwards. (But) He was calculative with it, understanding the team situation.
"Now knowing that I am willing to take up more responsibility, he can be more expressive. But I'm not saying that he will go out there and slog every ball. He is a smart cricketer and we have all seen that."
According to Kohli, the series was big in terms of preparing for the Champions Trophy in June.
"We are taking these three games as knockout games in our own heads because we need to prepare for Champions Trophy and we need to be in the right kind of mind frame because the tournament is like that - it is very competitive and very quick. So we need to be at our best from game one of the series," he said.