Indian cricket team batsman KL Rahul opened up about the various captains he had played under in the national side and also pointed out the difference in captaincy styles when it comes to MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Rahul started his international career under Dhoni whom he mentioned as one of his mentors but most of his career was played under Kohli. Kohli was his captain in the national side as well as in Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rohit is a more recent skipper under whom Rahul served as the vice-captain of the side.
“I have been captained by such great leaders, starting with MS Dhoni, while he was playing, you know he was the captain, he was my captain, my first captain. I have seen how he handled the team and his calmness, the things that he does behind the scenes like building a relationship with each person are something that I have learned from him. You know, you need to build a relationship where these boys will fight for you and will be with you. That is something I learned from him.”
“Then Virat Kohli was our leader for six-seven years and the thing is that the Indian team did under him, the stats are there to be seen and it was phenomenal. the passion, the aggression brought in, he set the standard really high, and his way of leading and captaining was like leading from the front and showing the team how to achieve greatness. He did that and we all jumped on board, we got inspired by the things that he was doing and we tried to be a better version of ourselves and that is something that Virat created and gave each player the power or the realisation to do that you don't have to settle for mediocre,” Rahul explained during the latest episode of "The Ranveer Show" podcast.
When it comes to Rohit, Rahul also mentioned that the opener likes to do his homework before coming to the pitch and he has an extremely meticulous approach towards the game.
“Rohit Sharma, who is like so sharp, as a leader, his strategies, he does a lot of homework before the game, he knows each person's strengths and what he will do and he's put under pressure, where you need to attack him or where are the flaws in his technique and like he is really really good at strategies and understanding the game. All these things are the things I have learned from these people,” he concluded.