Mumbai: Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, has insisted that the environment in the dressing room is very friendly and everyone was allowed to have an opinion and express it freely. Kohli added that he treated all the players with equal respect and did not believe in scolding youngsters.
“I believe in empowering people. I believe in giving them space to express themselves and when they come to a stage when they feel jumbled then I’ll have a conversation,” Kohli told the Times of India.
“The culture of scolding people isn’t there in the change room now. As friendly as I am with Kuldeep (Yadav), I am the same with MS (Dhoni). The atmosphere is such that anyone can say anything to anyone.
“I am like walking up to people and telling them ‘listen, I have committed these mistakes, make sure you don’t do them’,” he added.
“I’ll talk to them like, ‘this is where you are heading and this is where you have to head. These are the kind of things you should be doing. You’ll regret not correcting those things early like I did. I don’t want you to waste two-three years of your career. You have to play more than what you have played’,” Kohli said.
Kohli’s next international assignment will begin on August 3 as India are scheduled to play a full away series against the West Indies.
The upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies will be a part of the ICC Test Championship and Kohli said that it is happening at the right time for the longest format of the game.
“It’s very exciting. I think it’s happening at the right time for Test cricket. Although you are going to play bilateral series, the meaning and importance are way more. You have to plan for every series. I was excited about something of this sort and now it’s coming to life,” he said.
India will play three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches against the West Indies.
