Virat Kohli said it was never an “awkward moment” between him and MS Dhoni when he took over the captaincy.
“With me and MS there was never a question of any awkwardness in that whole period. The reality of the situation is MS choose me,” Kohli said on the RCB Podcast Season 2.
Kohli shared the dressing room with Dhoni for 11 years during their stint with Team India between 2008 and 2019.
Kohli also explained how MS Dhoni groomed him over the period of time to take over the captaincy of the Indian cricket team.
“He kind of took me under his wings, and since 2012 he kind of groomed me as a guy who is going to take over the captaincy from him. I was his vice-captain. I was always having conversations with him about what we can do in the field. I was always his right-hand man. I was always there understanding the game and I also got confidence because I was playing a lot of match-winning knock for the team,” said Kohli.
“I was also giving him a lot of input in the field. I was never someone who was just standing there fiedling and throwing the ball back. I always used to go to him when the game was tight. I was always with the feel of the game. I was never really only looking at the scoreboard .. oh these many runs and these many runs. I was more into what’s the pitch doing and what’s the conditions are like, what can we do to break the partnership.. all those kind of things. He understood that very early.
“That’s why it was very smooth. I always had and still have a huge respect for him for how he captained the India cricket team and obviously how he performed for so long.
“I never had any kind of ill intentions when it came to MS. I never felt like ‘I should be there’ I always was very respectful of the fact that he has so much trust in me and I can go and talk to him about anything,” he said.
Kohli also said when MS Dhoni played under him, things were always very simple.
“When I became the captain, it was the same. He will give me advice all the time and I was able to tell him that I don’t want to use this at this moment and let’s go ahead and use this plan. It was very clear and very simple. There was never awkwardness, there was never ‘any of this’ he might feel bad or I might feel bad’. It never happened,” said Kohli.