Virat Kohli considers Mahendra Singh Dhoni's views "priceless" and salutes him as "the most intelligent cricketer around".

Virat, who is now the India captain in all three formats, was speaking at a media conference ahead of the first one-dayer against England, in Pune, on Sunday.

Excerpts

Taking over limited-overs captaincy from Dhoni

It's the same thing. It's just that I am in charge of decisions now and he (Dhoni) will be giving his views, which was the case before as well. I think we both understand that as professional cricketers and it'll (transition) be pretty smooth.

When Dhoni was in-charge, I have always shared my point of view and thoughts with him. Eventually he has made those decisions. As cricketers, we understand it is a pretty natural thing to have different perspectives about the game, and about captaincy as well.

His views will be priceless for me. But I will have my preparation first and keeping his views in mind, maybe I will follow my instinct for a bit more (time) and then maybe switch to a plan B from a different point of view. Honestly, I don't feel any different. The only thing I am excited about is that when I will walk out for the toss tomorrow, I will be India's full-time captain.

If he has learnt from Dhoni

I have already learnt a lot. People have different styles of captaincy. I think he has been so successful because he has been able to find the right balance in being offensive with his plans as well as understanding the game when it is dominated by the opposition on how to slow things down. I think that's his biggest strength and I would like to strike a good balance going forward.

If being the captain in all three formats is a burden

I haven't felt the burden at all. I was actually pretty delighted to be given the captaincy for all the three formats. It adds to the responsibility and makes you a better player, a better person; that's something I have always liked - that aspect of captaincy. I personally feel until you try something, you can never know what's the maximum limit. Everyone doesn't have to bat like one person. <>MS and I have always understood our kind of operational styles out there in the middle. It doesn't make anything difficult as far as I am concerned.

On Dhoni's batting position

With the burden of captaincy not being there anymore, I am sure he will be able to express himself as a batsman, experiment a bit with his offensive game that he displayed when he came in. It's not that he didn't afterwards. (But) He was calculative with it, understanding the team situation. Now knowing that I am willing to take up more responsibility, he can be more expressive. But I'm not saying that he will go out there and slog every ball. He is a smart cricketer and we have all seen that.

And with Yuvi coming in as well in the middle overs, both of them, give and take, that's why they are so successful in the middle overs batting together. They feed of each other's momentum... One can play the aggressive role and one can keep knocking it around for singles.

Inexperience in the middle order

Yes, that is something we have discussed before picking Yuvi, because we cannot leave so much burden on MS alone in the middle order. I am willing to take up responsibility up the order, but there needs to be one more guy with him (Dhoni) down the order in case the top order doesn't fire. If the top order doesn't fire, you are left with MS alone and he is guiding the youngsters more often than not. Which is fine, if you have 15-20 games till a big tournament (begins). But when you have only three games to prepare for a big tournament (Champions Trophy), I think you need to get all your resources in place. You need to make sure the guys who have been picked are in good form.

So, right now we don't have the time to nurture the one spot as much because we have a big tournament coming up straightaway... That's why Yuvi was brought into the team.

England's limited-overs team

They seem to be quite fearless, which is always a good thing in the shorter format. But at the same time, I've always felt, to be a consistent performer in the ODI format, you need to understand strike rotation as well. You just can't go with one sort of momentum. That is something that we'll look to counter. We have quality bowlers in the side, we have bowlers who can make an impact initially.

Having Dhoni around to help with DRS

It's priceless. I saw a stat yesterday that 95% of the appeals that he's made in his career have been successful. He's one voice, if he tells me it's outside the line or it is missing, the decision stands there. It's not left up to doubt or any further debate from there on. He's someone who has always been very smart with decision-making, as far as appeals are concerned. I think his word will be the one word that I will trust as far as DRS is concerned. Because he is in the best position, plus he's the most intelligent cricketer around, so there's no doubt in my mind about that.

Looking forward to the Champions Trophy

We are taking these three games as knockout games in our own heads because we need to prepare for Champions Trophy and we need to be in the right kind of frame because the tournament is like that - it is very competitive and very quick. So we need to be at our best from game one of the series. We are not taking these games as trial games. We are not going to be experimenting much with anything. We are going to find the right combinations.