There’s a picture that went viral a few days back after Virat Kohli assumed captaincy in all three formats of the game — a young Kohli receiving a gift from Ashish Nehra followed by Kohli giving him orders to take position in the field in recent times.
Well, the times have surely changed for both the cricketers.
While Ashish Nehra has reinvented himself in the shortest format of the game, Virat Kohli has emerged as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However, what hasn’t, is probably Kohli being aggressive on field but staying utterly humble off it.
{{/usCountry}}While Ashish Nehra has reinvented himself in the shortest format of the game, Virat Kohli has emerged as the next big thing in Indian cricket. However, what hasn’t, is probably Kohli being aggressive on field but staying utterly humble off it.
{{/usCountry}}To cite a few, he has shied away from controversies involving his relationship with Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, defended her after a few overenthusiastic critics attacked her online over his poor form with the bat, and stayed grounded on comparisons between him and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar.
After the final T20I that India won by 75 runs against a lost English side at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday night, Kohli posed for a selfie with the seniors in the dressing room and tweeted the picture stating: “What a victory. @YUVSTRONG12 @msdhoni and Ashu Bhai. Well done fellas”.
The post has had a number of likes and retweets since last night with a number of followers lauding the captain for being humble and giving the seniors their due respect.
At the post match press conference as well, Virat Kohli took out time to credit the seniors.
“It’s not a bad thing when you have MS Dhoni behind the stumps and experienced guys like Ashu bhai (Ashish Nehra) and Yuvi pa (Yuvraj Singh).
“I am new to limited overs cricket and they have been around long before me. I’m taking advice from them whenever possible, they’re so intelligent, a lot of credit goes to them,” he said.
England was Kohli’s first assignment as captain of the limited overs format after MS Dhoni stepped down earlier in January. Kohli won both the three-match contests 2-1 respectively and was quick to thank his predecessor.
“I take a lot of advice from MS and am always speaking a lot to Ashish Nehra, too. I follow my instincts most of the time, but even today, I was speaking to him (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) and Nehra,” he added.
“I am not new to captaincy, but there has to be a balance between understanding the skills needed to lead in shorter formats - MS has been helping a lot on that front.”