Rohit Sharma has learnt art of captaincy from MS Dhoni, feels Karn Sharma

Despite having the towering presence of incumbent skipper Virat Kohli in the national side, Rohit Sharma, the Indian limited-overs side vice-captain, has managed to establish a name for himself as a fine leader and the Mumbaikar has done a fine job in the limited opportunities he’s had to captain the national side. In fact, such has been Rohit’s excellence as a leader - in both the IPL and the national team - that there have been calls by former cricketers and experts alike for Kohli to hand over white-ball captaincy to the phlegmatic Mumbaikar. 

While Karn’s Test debut, which came against Australia in Adelaide in 2014, was one to forget, he did, however, have a very pleasant outing on his T20I debut against England in the same year, as he finished with figures of 1/28 in a high-scoring game at Edgbaston. The leg-spinner, who now plays for Railways, revealed that one of the major reasons for him excelling on his T20I debut was Dhoni, who, he revealed, was constantly giving him advice from behind the stumps. 

The 32-year-old, who is four shy off reaching 200 wickets in first-class cricket, also noted that every player, regardless of whether they’re a part of the playing XI, can learn a lot from Dhoni. The leg-spinner added that the Jharkhand man’s ability to deal with crunch situations with utter calmness sets him apart from the rest.

“In fact, there is a lot to learn from Dhoni, whether you are a part of the XI or not. Most importantly, he remains cool and calm in crunch situations and doesn’t let the pressure mount on himself as well as the team.