Virat Kohli on Saturday revealed that former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had prevented his ouster from the Indian team a lot of times, PTI reported on Saturday.
“He (Dhoni) will always be the person who guided me initially and gave me opportunities. He gave me ample time and space to grow as a cricketer, saved me from getting dropped from the team many a times,” Kohli told BCCI.tv.
Since making his ODI debut in 2008, Kohli has played a majority of this international career under Dhoni’s captaincy.
Kohli added that replacing Dhoni as a captain would be a big ask.
“Obviously, these are massive shoes to fill. You think of Dhoni and the first word that comes to mind is captain! You don’t relate Dhoni in any other way. For me, he is always going to be my captain,” said Kohli.
Dhoni had stepped down from the role as captain in limited overs format earlier this week. Kohli, who had already replaced Dhoni as India’s Test skipper, was officially named captain of the One-Day International and Twenty20 International side on Friday.
Kohli’s new assignment starts with the six-match limited overs series against England starting in Pune on 15 January.
