NEW DELHI: India’s limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels his heir apparent Virat Kohli will make a good captain in all three formats.
Dhoni, showering praise on India’s Test captain, said Kohli is always pushing the envelope and that is what makes him special.
“Virat has been fantastic over the years; if you see what really counts is how you can improve your game. Right from the very first game that he played for India, he is somebody who always wanted to improve and he always wanted to contribute in the team’s win and by contribution it was not a small, he always wanted to be the Man of the Match in those terms,” Dhoni was quoted as saying by Tamil Nadu T20 Premier League’s official website.
“So I feel that he was always pushing himself — when it comes to fitness, reading of the game, execution of his plans — I feel that’s what makes him very special,” he said.
“After that, it’s how you lead your team and since he has the experience of leading RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and also now that he is the Test captain for the more than a year, I feel in a way he has groomed himself looking at all the challenges that he had to face.
“I feel that he has done an exceptional job and that he has a very bright future ahead of him when it comes to being the captain of the teams,” added the wicket-keeper batsman.
Dhoni returns to action with a couple of T20 Internationals against the West Indies to be held in USA on August 27 and 28. He is looking forward to the short-series and also working with new coach Anil Kumble.
“Well Anil Bhai, I have played with him, I have played under him and he’s a very special man. He’s one of the few players, irrespective of the conditions whether it’s (assisting) spin bowling or not, whether we’re playing in abroad or not — he was somebody who was very aggressive when it comes to his bowling. He was somebody who put in a lot of hard-work who would prepare very well over a period and you know he’s just fantastic,” said Dhoni.
“The integrity part, the honesty part, the hard-work, the affection and yes the big change has been the sense of humour. He had a different kind of sense of humour when he was playing — you know if you understand him at the right time you know ‘okay he was giving that joking reply’ and he just keeps moving from there. So it will be nice. Already I think we are the No. 1 Test team so that’s very good for us and I feel we’ll have a special time.”
Dhoni has more free time after retiring from Tests and he utilises that by working on his fitness.
“In my case, my motto was to lose a bit of weight; technically in the terms of the fat percentage and what you have to be careful about is when you try to lose fat you don’t want to end up losing muscle also. I have managed to lose two kilos,” he added. (AGENCIES)
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