India’s stand-in skipper, Ajinkya Rahane garnered a lot of attention with his cunning captaincy during Team India’s epic triumph in Australia but he also went on to clarify that the undisputed leader of this side is Virat Kohli and he is happy to fill in when required. Come February 5, Rahane will be resuming his duties of being a deputy skipper of the Test squad against England with Kohli back in the saddle.

Talking about the same during a chat with PTI, Ajinkya Rahane said, “Nothing changes. Virat was and will always be the captain of the Test team and I am his deputy. When he was absent it was my duty to lead the side and my responsibility to give my best for Team India’s success. It’s not the matter of merely being a captain. How you perform the captain’s role is what’s more important. So far I have been successful. Hopefully, in the future also, I will try to give this kind of results for my team.”

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Reflecting on his relationship with Kohli, Rahane said it has always been smooth. He explained, “Me and Virat have always shared a good bonding with each other. He has time and again praised my batting. Both of us played memorable knocks for our team in India and overseas conditions. It only helped that Virat comes at No.4 and myself at No.5. We have had a lot of partnerships,” the 32-year-old said.

Talking about the captaincy of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane reckons that Virat is a sharp captain, who takes good on-field decisions. Rahane asserted whenever the spinners are in operation, Kohli banks on him to take those catches at slips off (Ravichandran) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja is one of my core competence areas.

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People have seen more of a “leader” in Rahane but he downplayed his role. He explained, “With regards to leadership, I can only say that it varies from person to person. A captain is as good as his team. When you win a match or a series, it’s always a collective effort and not because of a singular man’s contribution. It’s your teammates only, who make you a good leader. The complete credit of this series win belongs to my team.”