Following Rahane-led India's 2-1 triumph over Australia, Panesar opined, "It’s an interesting debate. I think Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma’s combination works really well when they’re both given the leadership. It will be the skill of Virat Kohli to manage all the leaders now. This is going to be the next part of his captaincy,” he stated. He, thus, pointed out, “He likes his dictatorship style but this time he’ll have to start listening to other people. There may be times during the Test series when he may have to listen to the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravi Shastri, and Rohit Sharma,” Panesar added.