Their’s was one of the smoothest captaincy transitions in international cricket, and the reason could well be that former India World Cup winning captain MS Dhoni was impressed with how committed Virat Kohli was to winning.
Speaking exclusively on JioHotstar’s MS Dhoni Experience, the CSK talisman explained how their equation grew over the years with winning for India being at the core of it.
Dhoni recalled his first impressions. “Right from the start, Virat was someone who wanted to contribute. He was never satisfied with scoring just 40 or 60 runs—he always aimed for a century and wanted to remain not out till the end. That hunger for success was there from the beginning,” he told the show.
The turnaround seems to have come about after the Sri Lanka series. “If you look at the Sri Lanka series where he was part of the squad, he went back after that and then returned with an even stronger game. The way he worked on his batting, improved his fitness, and maintained his will to perform and keep improving—that’s what set him apart. He was always eager to learn,” Dhoni added.
Run chases – where Dhoni is the OG maestro of planning run pursuits and Kohli its reigning deity – got them brainstorming. “He would come and discuss situations, analyzing what he could have done differently. For example, in a run chase, if he got out at a crucial moment, he would talk about whether he could have delayed taking a risk by an over or handled the situation differently. We had many conversations, and that helped both of us. It was always an honest exchange of ideas—whether a certain approach was right or if an adjustment could have been made,” Dhoni said.
Though Dhoni is six years Kohli’s senior, the two had become friends now, and not being captains afforded them peace and glee to talk. “Initially, it was more of a relationship between a captain and a young player, but over time, as we kept interacting, we became friends. Even today, we share that bond, though there’s always a line of respect between a senior and a junior. Now that neither of us is captain, we get more time to talk before matches. Earlier, before the toss, we had to prepare and go, but now we can just stand and have a chat,” Dhoni said.