Only one fast bowler has played more Test matches and taken more wickets than Ishant Sharma. That someone is Kapil Dev, one of the greatest all-rounders the cricket world has ever seen. Safe to say, Ishant’s in great company. The tall pacer knows a thing or two about what it means to taste success in international cricket.
Part of this success was attributed to the fact that Ishant played under two of India’s greatest captains, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Different but equally successful. He played 90 of his 103 Test matches under Dhoni (47) and Kohli (43). 75 of his 80 ODIs under them, 69 and 6, respectively. While all of his 13 T20Is came under Captain Cool.
What makes Dhoni & Kohli unique as India captains?
While we know that Dhoni was always calm on the field and that Kohli brought fire into the middle, what was the main difference between them? Ishant has one word as his answer: planning.
“Mahi bhai ke team main difference kya tha? Mahi bhai aise insaan hai jo field pe cheezay karte hai. Unko field pe karna pasand hai (What was different about playing under MS Dhoni? He was someone who didn’t plan ahead but made decisions on the field). The planning occurred based on the game situation,” Ishant said on Raj Shamani’s podcast.
The pacer with 311 Test wickets became a different beast under Kohli. At his prime, he formed a pace quartet with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Umesh Yadav. But for him, the only difference between Kohli and Dhoni was that the former always had a basic plan laid out while the latter didn’t.
“With Virat, that wasn’t the case. There was a basic plan, and then based on how things progressed, we assessed and made decisions. MS Dhoni was not a big believer in meetings. He had a simple funda that you will learn only if you make mistakes. He thought that if you made one mistake and how much time you take to make the next mistake, that is consistency,” he added.
