Virat Kohli has shown more faith in pacers while Dhoni trusted his spinner, compares Ajit Agarkar

Despite MS Dhoni taking India home in three ICC events, taking India to the No.1 rankings in the longest format, there was this one chink in his armour, which was the team’s performance overseas. Under Dhoni, India had struggled immensely away from home, in conditions where there would be minimal offer for the spinners. 

However, after Kohli took over the captaincy, there has been a startling change in the Men in Blue’s approach away from home. Talking about the same, former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar has compared Kohli and Dhoni’s captaincy style, noting that while Kohli has shown more faith in pacers, the former skipper has trusted his spinners more.

As a result, Agarkar commented that Kohli’s team have had relatively better results in alien conditions. Against Australia in the 2018-19 edition of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India's pacer trio of Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah accounted for 48 of the hosts' wickets, in their 2-1 win Down Under. 

“The major difference I see is that MS Dhoni used to depend a lot on the spin bowlers to make his strategies. Virat Kohli, in a slight deviation, has shown more faith in fast bowlers,” Agarkar said in a recent episode of Star Sports’ chat show Cricket Connected.

“Because of that when India plays overseas Test matches, it has made a lot of difference to the results. The performance has been better and we have been able to compete more. Probably this was a stark difference because both had a different way of leading, but both got a lot of success,” he further said.

While the whole approach from the two Indian players regarding captaincy has been different, Agarkar believes that both of them have shown faith in their players, which has effectively translated into good results. 

“Virat Kohli has been a captain for such a long time in all formats and we can see how good the results have been. The methods might be different but if you show faith in your players, then you get good results as a captain,” Agarkar added.