Team India batter Virat Kohli overcame a difficult phase in his career recently. He was struggling to make an impact with his bat. However, he has made a great comeback to form, especially in white-ball cricket. The veteran batter revealed that apart from his family and coach, former cricketer MS Dhoni was the only person who genuinely reached out to him during the tough phase.
Virat Kohli appeared on the RCB Podcast season 2, where he opened up about the rough times. He expressed that Anushka Sharma was his biggest source of strength. The right-handed batter also revealed that MS Dhoni reaching out meant a lot to him. Virat Kohli said,
“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 to 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 was MS Dhoni.”
“He reached out to me and you can rarely get in touch with him,” the former RCB skipper added. “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,” he added.
MS Dhoni’s message hit home for me: Virat Kohli
Veteran cricketer Virat Kohli further revealed MS Dhoni’s message for him during the tough phase. He expressed that the former India wicketkeeper’s words hit home for him. The Royal Challengers Bangalore cricketer added that sometimes one needs to take a couple of steps back and focus on their well-being. He said,
“So, for him (MS Dhoni) to reach out to me…twice it has happened now. 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?”
“So, it (Dhoni’s words) hit home for me because I have always been looked at as very confident, mentally very strong, and can endure any circumstances and find a way and show us the way. Sometimes, what you realize is that at any given point of time in life as a human being, you need to take a couple of steps backward, understand how you are doing, how your wellbeing is placed,” he added.
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