In the first of the 10 episodes of the RCB Podcast Season 2, Kohli gave some insight into how his friendship with Dhoni functions.
“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,” said Kohli.
Under Dhoni, Kohli made his all-format debut before succeeding the legendary cricketer as all-format captain. Dhoni has supported Kohli since the start of his career, and that support will continue even after the legendary player retires from international cricket in August 2020.
In a 15-year career, Kohli has participated in 106 Tests, 271 ODIs, and 115 T20Is for India. He recently surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become the player with the fastest 25000 international runs in just 549 innings.
Kohli said Dhoni was the only one who ‘reached out’ to him during those tough times. “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?”