Kohli's game has gone upwards after taking up leadership !!!

Indian team are fresh on the back of creating history by not only winning the ODI series, but also the T20I series in South Africa. There is a certain spark with this Indian side which we hadn't seen before in the teams of the past. It is fair to say that a lot of the credit for this historic win should go to the captain, Virat Kohli.

In football, hockey and so many other team games, most of the vital decisions and moves are worked on by the coach, while the captain just has the job of execution. In cricket, however, the variables are much more and keep changing with every delivery.

It is quite widely accepted that the skipper is the most influential person in the game of cricket. And it is right to give him the space and resources and make him feel comfortable in order for him to get the best out of the team in every single game.The job of a modern day coach isn't that simple either, but it is mostly before the game starts such as organising and managing the resources, training, workload management, being the pivot between selectors and players and the board, but once the game starts the it's the captain all the way.

Once Kohli took over from MS Dhoni as a skipper, the changes in approach to captaincy were very much evident even during the infant stages. An intent to play five bowlers was a brave move in the positive direction which we hadn't seen much  before. 

Kohli's decisions came under a lot of scrutiny in the Test series when some key players were dropped and the team ended up losing the first two Tests. His decisions raised a lot of question marks as he had done what most skippers hadn't done before, but since the third Test, things changed incredibly. By the end of the tour, he had achieved what Indian skippers hadn't before.The added cherry of performing at the level he is shows that he more than leads from the front, too.

Not only as skippers, even as batsmen some of the greatest have been affected by the weight of leadership on their shoulders. Being the skipper of a country where the game is a religion comes with its own responsibilities and challenges.