I was waiting for the right time. For Virat to ease into the role, now he has. I feel it is the right time. People ask and question who is the best captain, who is the right captain,” he said as India prepares to take on England in the first ODI on January 15 in Pune.
When queried on his role now that he’s no longer captain, Dhoni said he would continue to help the team from behind the stumps and provide assistance and ideas to Kohli. “ODI is a slightly easier format than Tests for the captain.
My job is to give him (Kohli) my thoughts from behind the stumps. From my side it will be a flow of information as much as possible. Same to other bowlers too so as now to confuse them with too many ideas. If I go out with 100 ideas to him he is open to saying no to all of them because at the end of the day, he has to be making the tough choices.”
As Dhoni’s career went on, he started to play further down the order and allowed the youngsters to play higher up. That aspect may well not change with the introduction of Yuvraj Singh into the side but Dhoni maintains the decision needs to be made for the betterment of the team. “I always felt that it is difficult for newcomers to play at 6 or 7.
I felt I should take the responsibility to play six or seven down. I would have prefered to bat at 4 or 5 but what’s important for me is to see if a youngster can bat at 4 or 5. Even now I’m ready to bat at whatever position the team needs me to bat in,” he said.
