Khaleel Ahmed reveals captaincy styles of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

The Rajasthan young talent Khaleel Ahmed marked his debut under Rohit Sharma when regular captain Virat Kohli was resting for the 2018 Asia Cup. The youngster was impressive enough to scalp three wickets in his debut match against Hong Kong. The left-armer appeared twice in the series- against Hong Kong and Afghanistan. In the light of the same performance, he received a call up for limited-overs (ODI & T20I) series against West Indies.

The Southpaw featured in four ODIs against the Caribbean squad and picked seven wickets at an economy of 5.34. Later in the three T20Is that the young man bowled against WI, he had three dismissals to his credit. The Rajasthan-lad has so far appeared in 11 ODIs, and 14 T20Is with Men in Blue and has 15 and 13 wickets respectively to his name.

In a recent interview, Khaleel talked about his experiences of having played with different captains so far. While he called Virat Kohli’s style aggressive, Rohit Sharma appeared calm and composed to him, “Both Virat Bhai and Rohit Bhai are different types of captains. Virat Bhai is very aggressive. If a batsman hits you for a boundary or six, he will come, show confidence in you, and tell you to bowl a bouncer. He will inject energy in you with his aggression,” Khaleel told TOI.

“On the other hand, Rohit Bhai remains calm. He will come and give you confidence. He will give you the freedom and say you are playing an international match, you know better what to bowl, now go and bowl and dismiss him. I am also aggressive so, I love to play under Virat Bhai.”

Khaleel Ahmed has played under three captains so far

The interesting thing about Khaleel is that even during his short stint with the Indian side so far, he had the fortune of playing under three captains- Kohli, Sharma, and MS Dhoni. Speaking further of commonality between Kohli and Sharma as a captain, they don’t force things, the young pacer added.

“The common thing between Rohit Bhai and Virat Bhai is that they will not force a player to do anything. They will come, guide, and ask your opinion and then give inputs.”

Further, Ahmed recalled how Virat Kohli acted as his source of motivation and guided him all the while, back in series against Australia. The skipper didn’t go hard on him despite his weak bowling attack.