I Think Virat Kohli Is More Focused On The Field; Rohit Sharma Is Involved In Multiple Team Meetings: Corey Anderson

Former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson discussed the leadership style of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two of the most recognizable figures in Indian cricket.

For the past 7-8 years, the two most well-known players in Indian cricket have been Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

While Rohit has also garnered praise for his carefree batting since being elevated to the position of opening batsman, Kohli is widely regarded as the best batsman in modern cricket. After taking over as captain from MS Dhoni, Kohli held absolute power over Indian cricket for a considerable amount of time.

The COA era also allowed him to exercise authority over several decisions. During his time as captain, the batting outlaw brought a fitness revolution to Indian cricket. Under Kohli, the Indian team developed into one of the toughest teams in Test cricket. Kohli’s aggressive style in red-ball cricket brought out the best in all of his players.

The paradigm, however, changed last year when Kohli resigned as T20I captain to manage his workload and the BCCI made the brutal decision to remove him from the ODI captaincy. One captain was suggested by the selectors for the white-ball formats. A few months later, Kohli also renounced the role of Test captain.

They’ve probably got slightly different ways of doing it: Corey Anderson

Corey Anderson, a former New Zealand all-rounder who played in the IPL under both Kohli and Rohit’s leadership, spoke exclusively with News18 CricketNext about the two Indian legends’ approaches to captaincy.

Corey Anderson advised Rohit to be more proactive and suggested that Kohli make decisions based on the game being played on the field while Rohit attends numerous team meetings.

“They’ve probably got slightly different ways of doing it. I think Virat is more on the field, he kind of sees things as they are and then goes by that.

“Rohit’s kind of involved in a lot of those meetings, and I think he reads the game very, very well. I think he’s sort of just very proactive around how he does things.”

“He kind of backs himself and, because I said he’s proactive, he’ll make an opportunity and he’ll go with it. Whether it works or not, it’s a different question, he backs it and backs his bowlers to go and do it as well.

“We’ve seen with the Mumbai Indians team how well he’s led that team over many, many years,” Corey Anderson told News18 CricketNext during the sidelines of Legends League Cricket.

In the hugely profitable IPL, Rohit led the Mumbai Indians to five championships while Kohli resigned as captain of the RCB after the 2021 season with an empty trophy case.

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