On his 27th birthday, Virat Kohli talks about how captaincy has changed him

Virat Kohli is turning 27 on Thursday, and he will be celebrating this occasions by leading India at home for the first time in Tests. What a moment for this Delhi boy who has become part of India's 'hype generation'.
And why not?

Kohli's aggression, arrogance and self-styled young man image has given a reason to all young Indian cricket fans to believe that this Indian team has potential to become world No. 1 again under his captaincy. And, the real test begins on Thursday against the current world No. 1 ranked team South Africa.

Right from Day One of his first-class career, Kohli has made little secret of his intent to play cricket with aggression. His outbursts, first against Australia after scoring his maiden century in Adelaide to the recent Sri Lanka Test series, have hit headlines and even earned praise from senior cricketers for trail-blazing a path for future cricketers.

But in his own words, he has been learning fast to not waste his energies on unnecessary things. "There has been a lot of criticism about a lot of things in my life. I have never cared about these things. But with passing time, I thought I was wasting my energies on being too expressive on the field at times which I have started to consume and use it in better places. You only get smarter with age and that I think has happened to me as well," said the Indian Test skipper on Wednesday.

With the nation's youth looking up to him, Kohli should certainly try and avoid any such situation that can give chance to his detractors to open a front. And a 'mature' skipper is ready to learn the tricks of the trade without too much changing his style of leadership.

"The only thing that has changed is that I have 40 grey hair in my beard and that's the only thing that has changed since I have become Test captain. Obviously, you do make mistakes and you learn from them along the way," he admitted.

Despite Kohli's current image of being aggressive, the true picture is something else. People who have been following Kohli from his early days know how he handled a tough situation with so much calm in his early life.

It was December 2006, early in his first-class career when he had to come and bat in the morning for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy tie against Karnataka, he got a call at 3 am informing him of his father Prem Kohli's demise. Being an overnight batsman at the crease, he was in two minds whether to play or not. After lying awake for whole night, he walked to the pitch with absolutely no emotion on his face.

His innings of 90 (on which he got a wrong decision) in that innings was the one such instance which was an indicator of his mental strength under trying circumstance.

He is not afraid of asking his teammates to be their own captains on the field. "Basically, I haven't really come up with a set of rules. If you want to take team into a certain direction, you need to give them freedom of expression.

You let them make mistakes and learn from it themselves. I think the responsibility factor is one which has been stressed up in this particular squad. We're giving guys the ownership of things which is happening inside ground," was how Kohli described his leadership philosophy on Wednesday.

He also did not hide the fact that frontline off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is his go-to man. "For the last two to three years, he has been the go-to man in Test cricket. Even in conditions that suit you, you have to pitch the ball in the right area and you see him taking five-six wickets consistently in those conditions. He is definitely someone who has taken his game to the next level.

"The way he bowled in Sri Lanka, he proved he is among the top two-three spinners in the world. He is certainly believing in himself a lot more now and is a match-winner for India. He is that main bowler (for the team)."