MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli are considered to be among the greatest captains in Indian cricket history. Under Dhoni's captaincy, Indian cricket reached new heights, winning multiple ICC trophies. Under Kohli's leadership, the Indian cricket team became one of the most feared sides in the world. Dhoni captained India in all formats, retiring from Tests in 2014. Meawhile, he gave up the ODI and T20I captaincy on 2017. Kohli succeeded Dhoni, and became the full-time all-format skipper in 2017.
So what was the difference between the two as captains? Recently, Ishant Sharma decided to explain Dhoni and Kohli's captaincy differences, having played under both of them.
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"Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) ke team main difference kya tha? Mahi bhai aise insaan hai jo field pe cheezay karte hai. Unko field pe karna pasand hai. The planning occurred based on the game situation. (What was different about playing under MS Dhoni? Mahi bhai was someone who did things on the field. He liked doing things on the field)," said Ishant, on Raj Shamani's YouTube podcast.
"With Virat (Kohli), that wasn’t the case. There was a basic plan, and then based on how things progressed, we assessed and made decisions. MS Dhoni was not a big believer in meetings. He had a simple funda that you will learn only if you make mistakes. He thought that if you made one mistake and how much time you take to make the next mistake, that is consistency," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"With Virat (Kohli), that wasn’t the case. There was a basic plan, and then based on how things progressed, we assessed and made decisions. MS Dhoni was not a big believer in meetings. He had a simple funda that you will learn only if you make mistakes. He thought that if you made one mistake and how much time you take to make the next mistake, that is consistency," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Ishant represented India in 103 Tests, out of which he played 47 under Dhoni and 43 during Kohli's tenure. Meanwhile, 75 of 80 ODIs came under them, and he played 69 times during Dhoni's stint and six under Kohli. All of 13 T20Is came during Dhoni's capataincy.
Dhoni doesn't play for India anymore, although the wicketkeeper-batter still plays in the IPL for CSK. Meanwhile, Kohli has retired from Tests and T20Is, but is still available in the ODI format for India.