Virat Kohli’s captaincy is very instinctive and aggressive, admits Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the blessed cricketers, who got an opportunity to play for the national team both under MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. While he described Dhoni as a skipper who operates on his trust, he reckoned that Kohli is different from his predecessor because of his instinctive nature. He also recalled an incident from the Galle Test in 2015, when left-handed Jehan Mubarak walked out to bat. 

"Virat is very different when he gives you certain suggestions. We were in his first away tour of Virat as a captain in Sri Lanka and I was going through this unbelievable spell at Galle where whatever I dreamt of was happening. During this spell, Jehan Mubarak walked into the crease and there was a point, a cover, an extra-cover, mid-off, mid-on and a square leg. Slip, gully and silly point was natural,” he told Cricbuzz. 

The off-spinner narrated the story that he had a perfect fielding position set in his mind, where he did not want any changes. However, Kohli walked up to him and placed a leg-slip and short-leg, contrary to what the Tamil Nadu spinner was wanting in his head. 

"Virat picked out that extra man at cover and put him at leg slip. Virat then came and said 'Ash I think you should have a short leg also'. I said ok we can move the leg slip to short leg. He said 'no no, I think you should also have a short leg ' and he removed covers. And he told me you bowl whatever you want to bowl, but there is no cover.” 

“And I told, "Virat there is no covers? For a left-hander, the ball is turning away and there is no covers?" He was like 'abbe chal na daal, chauka gaya toh gaya'. I was like ok what's there and I went and bowled the ball. It pitched and straightened and it went straight to short leg.”

Soon after the dismissal, Ashwin recalled how he thought that as a batsman he wouldn’t have thought about defending. However, Kohli’s aggressive strategy combined with perfect field placing ensured that Mubarak walked back to the dressing room, scoring zero, lasting just seven deliveries. 

"I was like really? Because if I was the batsman and Rangana Herath was doing it to me, I wouldn't be thinking of a defence. I would just try to push to covers and run for a single. Mubarak blocked it, it jumped out and drifted and it went to short leg."