“He knew that his big brother was there to handle things” – Virat Kohli’s childhood coach reveals an interesting facet of the bond between Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni

Rajkumar Sharma, Virat Kohli’s youth coach, said that former Indian captain MS Dhoni helped the great batter through a difficult time in his career. Recently, Kohli said that when the batting legend Dhoni stood down as the skipper of the Indian team in the longest format, Dhoni was the only ex-teammate to check in on him.

Kohli replaced Dhoni as India’s red-ball skipper in 2014, making him the team’s most successful Test cricket captain ever. Kohli, who took over as captain when his predecessor stepped down, has lately discussed his friendly relationship with Dhoni in great detail on the RCB Podcast. When Dhoni decided to step down as captain of the Indian cricket team, Kohli said that he was personally chosen by Dhoni to take over the position.

Rajkumar, Kohli’s youth coach, spoke about the strong friendship between the two former Indian captains to India News Sports during the four-match Test series between Australia and hosts Australia.

What did Rajkumar Sharma say about Virat Kohli-MS Dhoni?

“Virat [Kohli] has always respected MS Dhoni and considers him a big brother. When Dhoni played under Virat, we saw Virat go at the long on during the death overs,” Sharma said.

“He knew that his big brother was there to handle things. This allowed him to field in the deep, as you need to have good fielders in those positions towards the backend of the innings. I really appreciate Dhoni for supporting Virat at a time when others targeted him,” he added.

After the 2021 World Cup, Kohli stood aside from his position as India’s T20I captain. The 34-year-old stepped down as Test skipper following India’s defeat at the hands of the Proteas in South Africa. The most successful Test skipper for India won 40 of 68 matches played with the red ball. Kohli has a 13-match advantage over Dhoni in Test match victories. In Test cricket, only Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, and Steve Waugh have more victories than Kohli.

When asked about Kohli’s entire tenure as skipper, Rajkumar praised the experienced batter for introducing a newfound emphasis on fitness to the Indian squad.

“Virat Kohli’s biggest achievement was that he changed the fitness culture in Indian cricket. The team was the fittest during his captaincy. He did it himself first and led from the front. Earlier, players didn’t do weight training,” Sharma added.