He also opened up on the difference between the two's captaincy style.
Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has opened up on the differences between the captaincy of recently-retired legendary MS Dhoni and current skipper Virat Kohli.
Pathan has pointed out the major difference between Kohli and Dhoni’s captaincy style and that is their temperaments, saying the former captain was calm, whereas the current skipper is aggressive – which they instilled in the teams while differentiating their era.
Dhoni was dubbed as “captain cool” for his ability to remain calm in some of the most tensed situations and with his sharp cricketing brain and cool attitude brought the best out of players and made India match-winner.
His contribution to Indian cricket immense won all three ICC trophies – ICC T20 World Cup 2007, ICC ODI World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy during his captaincy stint.
While Kohli is different as he has instilled an aggressive attitude in his team but is following the footprints of Dhoni in terms of winnings games for his country. However, the dashing cricketer is yet to win an ICC trophy for India.
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Pathan said on Star Sports' Cricket Connected chat show, “In Dhoni's era, we saw a calmness and in Virat Kohli's era we saw aggression. You need both these qualities to be successful.”
On the captaincy eras of Dhoni and Kohli, former all-rounder highlighted: “A player, how he uses his calmness and his aggression to perform better, we have seen in both the eras. We have seen MS Dhoni come at the end and win us matches from difficult situations and we have seen Virat Kohli’s amazing record in Test cricket.”
Pathan concluded, “Going to Australia and beating them there. Their fast bowlers who always play aggressive cricket can dominate anyone, but Virat Kohli went there and dominated their bowlers in their own backyard both as a player and as a captain.”