Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are among two of the greatest cricketers India has ever produced. Kohli and Dhoni share a special bond as it was under the latter's captaincy that the former began his international career and evolved as one of the greatest match-winners for India. Kohli has been vocal about the role Dhoni has played in his career along with underlining the importance of the Chennai Super Kings captain when it comes to being a motivational figure during different phases of his career.
In the opening episode of the RCB Podcast Season 2, Kohli once again revisited the time when he received a special message from Dhoni. The maverick batter revealed that Dhoni was the only other person who reached out to him when he was struggling to score runs for Team India.
“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," said Kohli.
"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," he added.
Kohli and Dhoni shared the Indian dressing room for 11 years and the former took over the captaincy duties once the latter decided to relieve himself of leadership duties.
"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?," Kohli said while reflecting on Dhoni's message.
"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 well-being is placed.
"So, there are not many places, for the people who have played the game for a long period, as strong individuals, they can go and explain in a way that the other person can understand. That’s why I mentioned this particular incident because MS Dhoni knows exactly what is going on, he understands it because he has been there himself," the former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain added.
After weathering an elongated lean patch, Kohli roared back to form in 2022 and registered his maiden T20I century in the Asia Cup. The right-handed batter also played a match-winning knock against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia along with smashing a century in an ODI game against Bangladesh.
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