5 ways in which MS Dhoni's world No. 1 team was different from that of Virat Kohli's

#3 Kohli backs the 5-bowler theory

Ashwin is Virat Kohli’s lead bowler in the current Test team

Ever since Virat Kohli took over the captaincy of the Indian Test team, he made it quite clear that he would like to go into each Test with aggressive plans, and the most prominent of his plans has been the use of 5 specialist bowlers in the playing XI.

While MS Dhoni was always intent on playing 7 specialist batsmen and 4 bowlers, Virat Kohli likes to go in with 5 specialist bowlers, unless the pitch is quite tough for batting and the team feels the need for a 6^th batsman.

The stats back this up too. In the 17 Test matches that Kohli has captained India so far in his career, he has played 5 specialist bowlers in 9 of them; more than 50% of the matches in which he has been captain, whereas, in the 60 Tests that MS Dhoni captained, there were very few occasions in which he played 5 bowlers.

Of the 9 matches that Kohli has played 5 bowlers in, India has won 5, drawn 3 and lost just 1 Test match, proving the fact that playing 5 specialist bowlers actually produces positive results as the team has more chance of bowling the opposition out twice. This is an area where this Indian Test team under Kohli’s style is distinctly different from MS Dhoni’s.