Virat Kohli has been one of the best captains in modern-day cricket. He has an impressive win percentage of over 60 across formats, the best for an Indian captain. However, he has not won an ICC trophy yet.
His team reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, semi-final of the ICC World Cup 2019, and the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021) but stumbled in crunch situations.
Virat Kohli took over the Test team reins in 2014 from MS Dhoni when the team was going through a transition phase. Speaking about his leadership journey with an interview with Dinesh Karthik, Kohli said that the 'culture and environment' that has become a norm in the Indian cricket team is his legacy.
“In my mind, I have already achieved what I wanted to as a leader. Which is to create an environment and culture where people strive for excellence every day. When I see us practicing now, every session that we play, no one is wasting their time on the field. That for me is so, so important because I’d rather have an hour of quality practice and I’ve done everything that I have to do, rather than lurking around for 2 to 2.5 hours and fooling around for an hour in between. I don’t see anyone doing that anymore,” Virat Kohli told in an interview to Dinesh Karthik for Sky Sports.
He added that the fitness levels in team India have improved drastically and young players focus on being fit starting from the age group level.
“It’s absolutely precise and professional. At the age group level, you know that if you want to play for India, you got to be fit. You need a certain fitness level. Fast bowlers coming in now are ready to bowl 20 overs, easy. They’re fit, hardly have any niggles.
“I feel I have done my job in the transitional phase. After MS (Dhoni) left, cricket evolved. It changed, the pace of the game starts moving notches higher and we moved with time, stayed up to speed. The results in the last 5-6 years are there for all to see. We’re one team that everyone is wary of when we travel. That’s all that I wanted to see as captain,” he added.
The Indian captain also spoke about reaching out to youngsters and instilling confidence in them to succeed at the highest level.
“The reason why I reach out to the youngsters is that I don’t want them to waste months and years of their life as I wasted as a youngster, still trying to figure things out. I found out the formula for success and what it means to succeed at this level, I want these guys to pick it up early so that the transition with the Indian team can be smooth,” he said.
He spoke about the next transition phase and said that the youngsters should not be taking a long time to build the team again and that he is working towards it.
“It should not take the youngsters 2-3 years after the seniors have gone to build the team again. So I want them up to speed immediately when we are almost about to step out so that Indian cricket stays on top."
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“It doesn’t matter if the guy bowling has 130-140 matches experience and you’ve got 4. If you have more belief than him on the day, you can outplay him. That’s what I’ve tried to inculcate in their minds. That don’t let the norms of playing 30-40 games and gaining experience fool you. Because even if you’ve played 80-90 games and aren’t in a good frame of mind, you’re still going to nick the first ball to slips. So this is a game that has to be played in the moment, one day at a time,” he said.
He said that he gives his own examples and wants the youngsters to learn from the mistakes he made when he started playing international cricket.
“That’s why I talk to them about the things I did wrong when I came in. Don’t play for proving people wrong, don’t play for stuff that does not matter. Which is England tour, tick mark, Australia tour, tick mark. It doesn’t matter in the end. Did you step onto the field absolutely fearless? If you did and you’re failing, no problem at all. It just wasn’t meant to be for you. So don’t play for wrong reasons,” he concluded.
(news18 inputs)
