NEWS
Follow UsThat MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli share a special bond is not a news anymore, for the latter has always spoken highly about the man he made his international debut under. When Virat Kohli stepped down from the Indian captaincy and was going through a tough run of form, he came out to admit that Dhoni was the only person who reached out to him to give him strength.
Now, free from any captaincy responsibility, Kohli admitted that he is feeling a lot free and thanked MS Dhoni for sharing his perspective on the things he had experienced in the past.
“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,” Kohli said in the second season of RCB podcast.
“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 to 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 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?’
One of Kohli’s biggest strengths has been his strong mental fortitude which made him one of the greatest cricketers of all time. In all three formats, Kohli has managed a level of fitness and strong work ethic that is second to none. But he stated that for the number of different perspectives that the Jharkhand man shared with him has been immensely helpful for him.
“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.
"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,” Kohli added.
