It’s no secret that Virat Kohli shares a great camaraderie with his former India captain MS Dhoni. When Dhoni quit India’s white-ball captaincy in 2017 and the responsibility was handed over to Kohli, the Delhi cricketer had tweeted out his admiration for his senior, saying: “You’ll always be my captain”.
In the same way, Dhoni, who leads a very private life, didn’t hesitate to reach out to his junior when Kohli was struggling for runs in international cricket. Kohli experienced a prolonged lean patch, struggling to score a century for almost three years in international cricket from 2019 to 2022. He ended that drought during the Asia Cup with his maiden T20I ton against Afghanistan.
After his century, Kohli had revealed that Dhoni was the only one to reach out to him during his tough phase.
“The only person who genuinely reached out to me was MS Dhoni. For me, that is such a blessing to know that I could have a such a strong bond and relationship with someone who is so senior to me,” Kohli had said.
Kohli has now spoken about his bonding with Dhoni in detail while speaking on the RCB podcast season 2. He said what made the call from Dhoni extra special was the fact that he is not a social person.
“What is interesting is that throughout this phase apart from Anushka, who has been the biggest source of strength for me because she has been with me throughout this whole time and she has seen me very closely as how have I felt, things that I have gone through, the kind of things that have happened…the only person who, apart from my childhood coach and family…genuinely reached out to me has been MS Dhoni,” Kohli shared.
“He reached out to me and you can rarely get in touch with him. If I call him on any random day, 99 percent he will not pick up (the phone), because he just does not look at the phone. So, for him to reach out to me…twice it has happened now and one of the things that he’d mentioned in the message while reaching out to me was that: ‘when you are expected to be strong and looked at as a strong individual people forget to ask how are you doing?'”
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Kohli, who shared the dressing room with Dhoni for 11 years during their stint with Team India between 2008 and 2019, added that the former India captain asking him about his well-being gave him a new perspective in life.
“So, it (Dhoni’s words) hit home for me because I have always been looked at as someone who is very confident, mentally very strong, who can endure any circumstances and find a way and show us the way. Sometimes, what you realise is that at any given point of time in life as a human being you need to take a couple of steps backwards, understand how you are doing, how your wellbeing is placed.”
Further, Kohli explained that Dhoni’s previous experiences helped him to be perceptive and compassionate.
“MS Dhoni knows exactly what is going on, he understands it because he has been there himself. He has experienced what I have experienced right now. So, it is only out of experience, and feeling those feelings in that moment is the only way you can be truly compassionate and understanding towards another individual who is going through the same thing.”
Apart from talking about Dhoni, Kohli, who has played 106 Tests, 271 ODIs and 115 T20Is for India in a career spanning 15 years scoring over 25000 international runs, spoke on how he is experiencing a “different kind” of phase in his career.
“I have experienced a different kind of phase in my career currently. It’s been a while since I felt (this) free in the sense how I felt all these years of playing at any level of cricket,” he said.
Kohli will soon be back in action with India playing the third Test against Australia from 1 March in Indore. India currently hold a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
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