11 quotes from Kohli's first PC as full time ODI skipper show why he is ready to take over Dhoni's mantle

Sunday will see Virat Kohli leading India for the first time as captain of all three formats. It will not be his first ODI as captain, though, having filled in for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 17 ODIs before. Here are Kohli's thoughts on various aspects before the three-match series against England.

On the lessons learnt from Dhoni...

I've already learnt a lot. Since the time I’ve come into the team, observing him which I've said a lot of time in the past. Many people have different styles of captaincy and I think he’e been so successful because he’e been able to find the right balance in being offensive with his plans as well as understanding the game when it is dominated by the opposition on how to slow things down. I think that’s his biggest strength, like to strike a good balance going forward. It happens it Test cricket but in the shorter format your have to make it happen even quicker because the game can drift away quickly. You need to have more composure, you need to be more aware. Having played a lot of one-day cricket, white ball cricket, batting at No. 3, I’ve had a good understanding of how situations can go wrong or things turn immediately. That would help me be aware in the field, understanding what I would do as a batsman. It helps when you are a top-order batsman yourself, to understand what the opposition batsman would be thinking at what stage and which are the bowlers I would find uncomfortable at this stage. Things that you implement at that stage with your captaincy. The thing I would love to execute from his captaincy is to strike a right balance between aggression, plans and understanding where his game going from the opposition.
 
On whether Dhoni would bat with freedom at No. 4...

I would like to take the bulk of responsibility now. To bat through the innings, hold one end and let the others express themselves in the way they want to and let them bat around me. Obviously, we are talking about a very experienced cricketer. He’s played a lot of limited overs matches and his record speaks for itself. I'm sure he without having that extra burden of taking responsibility, sometimes it can restrict you. I've also felt that quite a few times but maybe because my game is dependent on me playing in an offensive way. I haven’t had to curb my game too much because I know that it won't improve my game and it won't benefit the team. MS was able to absorb that pressure for a long time. But I’m sure with burden of not being there anymore, I’m sure he’ll be able to express himself as a batsman. Experiment a bit with his offensive game that he displayed when he came in, not that he didn't after. He was calculative with it, understanding the team situation. Now knowing that I’m 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’s a smart cricketer and we’ve all seen that. But I think he’ll have a bit more freedom and bit more assurance knowing that he doesn't have to think twice before attempting a bit shot. And with Yuvi coming in as well in the middle overs. Both of of them, give and take, that's whey they are so successful in the middle overs batting together. They feed of each others’ momentum and one can play the aggressive role and one can keep knocking it around in singles. I’m sure they’ll looking forward to doing it together. It just gives MS another chance to express himself.

On optional nets on match eve and the context of the series...

That was a management call (about practice session). I also missed practice, I am not injured at all. I wanted to rest. Everyone is fine and everyone is available for selection. And yes, just looking forward to the first game.

On DRS in use for ODIs and Dhoni's help in it...

Priceless. I saw a stat yesterday that 95% of his appeals that he's made in his career have been successful. As a captain I have no sort of extra thinking as far as DRS is concerned. He's one voice, if he tells me it's outside the line or it is missing, the decision stands there. It's not left to doubt or any further debate from there on. He's someone who has always been very smart with decision making, as far as appeals are concerned as well. I think his word will be the one word that I will trust as far as DRS is concerned. Because he is in the best position, plus he's the most intelligent cricketer around, so there's no doubt in my mind. 

On whether England is better suited to play white ball cricket in India than the Test team...

I've seen the warm-up games as well. They seem to be quite fearless, which is always a good thing in the shorter format. But at the same time, I've always felt, to be a consistent performer in the ODI format you need to understand strike rotation as well. You just can't go with one sort of momentum. That is something that we'll look to counter. See if they lose a few early wickets, what are the plans they come up with. Against a side like that, you need to be more aggressive in terms of wanting to pick up wickets. If you think of bowling dot balls, they can feed on that - that is something I've observed. So we already have plans in place in terms of how to counter what they are going to come up with. It just takes one mistake to change mindset completely about being offensive, and then things can sort of turn around pretty quickly. So we have quality bowlers in the side, we have bowlers who can make an impact initially. We have world-class spinners as well. It's going to be interesting how hard they come initially, but as I said, in ODIs we've seen it a lot of times that teams start of really well in the first 10, they really dominate and once you lose 2-3 wickets in the middle phase, unless you know how to rotate strike, it gets very, very difficult. But yes, this English team, specially in the shorter format looks very fearless.

On how he manages a senior player like Shikhar Dhawan...

Situations always change in cricket, especially where a cricketer stands as far as his form or performances are concerned. A player like Shikhar... everyone is aware of his ability. We try to keep someone like Shikhar in a very good head space. Because, he's clear in his head, he can really take the game from the opposition. That's something we try to do, give him as much space as possible, not speak too much about the game - that's something I like to do. Knowing the kind of player Shikhar is, and the kind of person he is, it is better to leave a guy like that to his own planning and own thinking, rather than giving your plans to him. Because he's so instinctive, once he gets going, he just finds more options than anyone else. Once he's in the game, he has momentum, I've seen guys really struggling to bowl to him when he's in full flow. It's all about giving him his own space to prepare initially. In ODIs, I still feel he possesses lot of quality and ability to set up the game for the other batsman. He bats long as well, he can really bat till the 40-45th over once he gets going. So, he has a lot of positives, that's what we always back Shikhar on. Ajinkya Rahane is coming back from an injury as well, he's batted well in the one-day warm-up match. KL Rahul has been playing well for a while, he's coming off almost a double hundred in Chennai. So the guys are in good space, and Shikhar has also got runs in the warm-up game so we have to figure out what fits into our combination - out of these three, who are the two who will be likely to start. But, I again say, I am happy that all three are in a good space now having had some runs behind them. Makes my job easier.

On whether there are concerns about middle-order...

Yes, that is something we have discussed before picking Yuvi because we cannot leave so much burden on MS alone in the middle order. I am willing to take up responsibility up the order, but there needs to be one more guy with him down the order in case the top order doesn’t fire. If the top order doesn’t fire you are left with MS alone and he is guiding the youngsters more often than not. Which is fine if you have 15-20 games till a big tournament, but when you have only three games to prepare for a big tournament, I think you need to get all your resources in place.  You need to make sure the guys who have been picked are in good form.

So, right now we don’t have the time to nurture the one spot as much because we have a big tournament coming up straight away, that’s why Yuvi was brought into the team. We had discussed Ambati Rayudu as well, but he has been injured for a long time and didn’t have game-time behind him. Yuvi has had a very good first-class season, so obviously he was into the team before anyone else. So, I think this just gives the team much more balance in the middle and lower-middle order with MS and Yuvi. They can really guide Kedar (Jadhav) and Hardik (Pandya) still with them, but to have two experienced guys compared to one is a massive difference. I am sure Hardik and Kedar can learn a lot from them, batting along with the them.

On whether the series is a preparation or a trial game ahead of Champions Trophy...

I think at the international level, no game is a trial game. I don’t believe in that. You go out there playing to win every game that we play. These three games, we are necessarily taking them 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 for us to prepare because we have only three games. That’s why I said we brought in Yuvi to have the best batting combination possible. Going into a big tournament we need to have a balance of a strong top order, strong middle order and lower middle order as well along with the best bowlers. So, we are not taking these games as trial games, in fact we are taking them as preparation in our own heads for the Champions Trophy in England, so these three games become all the more crucial. We are not going to be experimenting much with anything. We are going to find the right combinations from game one and then stick to it till the Champions Trophy.

On how different is he as captain compared with Dhoni...

As I said, 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. When he was in charge, I have always given my point of view and my thoughts to him. Eventually he has made those decisions. Sometimes it may immediately clicks 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’s a pretty natural thing to have different perspectives about the game, about captaincy as well.

But again, his views will be priceless for me as well. But I will have my preparation first and keeping his views in mind, maybe immediately changes may not be made, maybe I will follow my instinct for a bit more and then maybe switch to a different plan B from a different point of view. It’s the same thing. It’s just that I am in charge of decisions now and he will be giving his views, which was the case before as well. I’ll be giving my views and still his decision was paramount. I think we both understand as professional cricketers and it’ll be pretty smooth.
 

On taking over as captain of all three formats...

I haven’t felt burden at all. I was actually pretty delighted to be given the captaincy for all the three formats. It adds to the responsibility and makes you a better player, a better person; that’s something I have always liked that aspect of captaincy. I personally feel until you try something, you can never know what’s the max limit, that you can actually executive or achieve in that aspect. I have felt in the past people have already created limitations in their own head in terms of what they can do and what they cannot even before even trying. If the burden is too much, I don’t know. Maybe in future, I will be able to assess that much more but as of now, I am pretty ready and accepting of taking captaincy in all three formats. I feel pretty honoured, I don’t feel any stress, I am not looking at any burden at all. It just gives me more opportunities to take Indian cricket forward, which I think is the best thing to happen to anyone.
 
On feelings going into the series as full-time captain...

See, the kind of cricket we have been playing and the manner in which we have performed in Test cricket, I think we can execute them and replicate them in the shorter formats as well. Like MS said, it’s easier to lead a side in ODIs than in Tests because in Tests you have to be constantly aware of not letting a session run away, because it can eventually impact the outcome of the Test match. In one-dayers, there is more scope for the opposition to commit mistakes, so you can come back into the game even without pushing too much. Obviously you have to be hands on as captain, but I don’t think you have to give so much effort as captain since the game is continuously moving on. At times, the opposition’s mistakes does make your job easier. Honestly, I don’t feel any different. The only thing is I am excited 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.