India's former strength and conditioning coach Paddy Upton revealed the key differences between the captaincy styles of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli took over the charge as the captain of Indian team in all the formats in January 2017 from MS Dhoni. The Indian wicketkeeper-batsman is widely regarded as one of the greatest skippers to have led the side, having won all the ICC trophies during his tenure.
To this day, Dhoni is the only captain in cricket history to have achieved the feat.
Under Kohli, India achieved significant success in all formats of the game but is yet to lift a ICC trophy. While India lost in the final of 2017 Champions Trophy, their campaign in the 2019 World Cup ended in the semifinals.
India's former strength and mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who was the part of support staff when the side lifted the 2011 World Cup trophy, revealed the key differences between the captaincy styles of Dhoni and Kohli in an interview with the Times of India.
“Dhoni and Kohli are two very different leaders. Dhoni is the strong silent type, who is very level-headed and Kohli is the emotional type," said Upton.
“Virat is highly charged and energetic, and is someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve, which we can see by his regular emotional highs and lows on the field. The way a leader behaves has varying degrees of impacts on their team.
"The more sensitive and slightly vulnerable team members will be most impacted by the leader's words and actions. A word of encouragement goes a long way to lifting a player and getting the best out of him, and conversely, a display of disapproval has the potential to undermine a player’s confidence.
"It is possible that in this way, Kohli really pumps players up, and also has the potential to undermine their confidence at other times,” Upton explained.
Under Virat Kohli, India achieved the World No.1 ranking in the longest format of the game - the position they continue to hold.
