5 captaincy luxuries that Virat Kohli has that MS Dhoni didn't

Indian team has been on a splendid run ever since Virat Kohli took over the captaincy reigns from MS Dhoni. India has achieved Number 1 rankings in both Tests and ODIs and has an opportunity to do the same in T20s as well.

At the outset, it might look like Kohli has performed better than Dhoni as a captain but a closer look will make you understand the advantages Kohli has which Dhoni didn't have. Kohli has a number of luxuries which Dhoni, or for that matter any other Indian captain never had.

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#1 Fast bowler options

Indian fast bowling squad never looked better than this

India has always been known as the land of spinners. Over the years, it has produced world class spinners like Anil Kumble, BS Chandrashekhar, EAS Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Venkatraghavan and Harbhajan Singh to name a few.

While Indian team has always been strong in the spin bowling department, it has always struggled with finding great fast bowlers. Never before has India had a group of fast bowlers competing for slots. MS Dhoni always had a difficult time in overseas conditions due to the lack of genuine fast bowling options in the playing XI itself, forget about having multiple fast bowlers competing for a slot in the squad.

Kohli has a battery of fast bowlers like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammaed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma at his disposal with other young upcoming bowlers like Basil Thampi, Mohammed Siraj, Siddarth Kaul and Shardul Thakur competing for two slots.

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#2 Fast-bowling all-rounder

Pandya has been a huge asset to the Indian team

Dhoni for years invested time in finding an all-rounder for the team. He utilised Irfan Pathan as an all-rounder but it turned out to be a flop as Irfan Pathan lost his form and was later removed from the team itself.

Dhoni succeeded in unearthing a spinning all-rounder in Jadeja but again his use was limited to Indian conditions as a fast bowling all-rounder was the need of the hour in overseas conditions

Thanks to IPL, India has got Hardik Pandya who is among the world's finest young all-rounders now. Pandya is a huge asset and his success has made sure that now India has an important ammunition which can be used to win Test matches in foreign conditions.

#3 Wrist spinners

Kohli has reaped rich rewards for maintaining his faith on the spin duo

Wrist spinners are a commodity which every captain likes to have. The importance of wrist spinners comes from the fact that they can turn the ball on any wicket whereas finger spinners depend on the surfaces to spin the ball. Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne stand out from the rest because of their ability to get turn on any surface and this was possible because they used their wrists exceptionally well, despite the former being an off-spinner.

Dhoni for long had only finger spinners like Ravichandra Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Ravinda Jadeja and Pragyan Ojha at his disposal. Amit Mishra was the only wrist spinner that Dhoni had but he was very inconsistent. The lack of wrist spinners affected the team's performance in Australia and England where the surfaces didn't assist spin.

Kohli now has the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav at his disposal. The wise use of these two bowlers would help India in winning test series in unfriendly conditions of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England.

#4 Settled openers

Rohit and Dhawan have been a symbol of stability at the top

India has performed the best when they had settled opening partnerships. 2011 World Cup victory, 2007 T20 World Cup victory, 2013 Champions Trophy victory and attaining Number 1 rank in Tests in 2009 was all possible because of the settled opening partnerships.

India didn't have a fixed opening partnership since 2012. Sehwag's form dropped from 2011 itself and Gambhir too was ousted in 2012. India struggled to find a settled opening pair till the 2013 Champions Trophy, where Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma filled the void. The struggle with opening partnership continued again with Dhawan's slump in form post-2013.

Kohli now has a settled opening partnership with Rohit and Dhawan in the form of their lives and with both of the performing consistently. Both the openers would play an important role in future World Cups and foreign tours similar to the role played by Sehwag and Gambhir.

#5 Death bowlers

Bumrah and Bhuvaneshwar have been phenomenal in the death overs

Specialist death bowlers are an important component of established teams. Every successful team has at least one death bowler in their team. The presence of death bowlers helps the team to minimise the damage in the end overs.

Dhoni spent a majority of his post-match press conferences ruing the lack of specialist death bowlers in his team.The Indian team lost a number of matches not being able to defend 300+ targets under Dhoni and the lack of death bowlers was an important factor in the losses.

Bumrah and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are performing the role of death bowlers to perfection and the recent results of the Indian team give a good indication of the role that the good death bowlers play in winning matches

There have been a number of articles written comparing Dhoni's and Kohli's captaincy abilities and a majority of them considered Kohli's captaincy to be better than Dhoni's. The problem, however, is the comparison of apples and oranges. Kohli has had a splendid run as the captain but he has a number of luxuries which no other Indian captain had.

When we are comparing captaincy abilities of captains from different eras it is important to also look into the team that the captains had at his disposal. The team that Kohli has is better than most Indian teams and therefore the results are also better. In the end, the captain is only as good as his team and Dhoni needs to be given credit for what he has done to the team rather than comparing him with Kohli and other captains.