Shashi Tharoor points out differences between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni's captaincy

Renowned Indian politician and diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, distinguished the styles of leadership role between Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Tharoor also claimed that a captain like Kohli gets extra respect simply due to his accomplishments with the bat.

Tharoor is an avid follower of the game and has connections with Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier with now-defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha talked about the topic of leadership and captaincy.

Much like the rest of the world off-late, Tharoor too tagged Virat Kohli as the best batsman in the world.

“Kohli is arguably the world’s best batsman, which gives him an extra edge (as captain). That shouldn’t really be relevant to captaincy, but a captain like Kohli gets that extra respect,” quoted Shashi Tharoor while talking to The Telegraph.

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala believes the two Indian captains, Kohli and Dhoni, have a different set of leadership skills to offer.

“They are vastly different… Kohli is excitable, Dhoni never got excited. Rather, he stayed calm. Kohli wants to do everything all by himself, while Dhoni preferred asking others to do their bit,” elucidated the 61-year old politician.

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Further, Tharoor reckons BCCI should have sent the Indian team earlier for the South African tour, to get them acclimatized to the conditions.

“If only the Board had sent Kohli and his men to South Africa well before the January 5 start of the first Test… It takes time to acclimatise and look at what our players did once they’d familiarised themselves with the conditions,” Tharoor said.

Hence, Tharoor believes the 2-1 scoreline of the Test series between India and South Africa, might have been different with few tour games under their belt.

“India didn’t play a single practice match before the Cape Town Test. Two such fixtures against proper first-class teams would surely have counted for a lot. In fact, the Test series result could have been different,” concluded Shashi Tharoor.

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