As a young player in any team, the captain and the bond with him can become a dictating factor in your career in any sport leave alone cricket. Hence, the trust the captain puts in the player and him responding with performances then lays the foundation and that has been the case with the Virat Kohli-MS Dhoni relationship as far as Indian cricket is concerned and the bond has lasted beyond the cricket field and playing years for the national team. Kohli in the past has opened up that Dhoni was one person apart from his childhood coach and wife Anushka Sharma, who genuinely reached out to him during his tough phase and now he reiterated it while mentioning that the bond is unconditional.
Kohli, who is currently feeling free and is probably in the best phase of his career since the 6-week break he took before the Asia Cup went through a period of almost 9-10 months where nothing went right for him. He was stripped of ODI captaincy, gave up the role in Test cricket, couldn’t buy a run across formats, had his worst IPL season in a decade but once he stepped aside from the game, he reflected on what wasn’t going right for him and then was back to being the white-ball beast he is.
Speaking on RCB Podcast Season 2, Kohli has aggregated 25,000 international runs said, “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 that Dhoni reaching out to him was also special because he isn’t that active socially, he wouldn’t even pick his calls while recalling the learning he gave it to him.
“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 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 that those words somehow stayed with him as he has always been associated with his aggressive persona on the field but when he was going through the rut last year he realised how important it is to take a step back and look at oneself before pushing the reset button.
“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.
“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,” he added.
