In a recent interaction on the RCB Podcast, Kohli opened up on his lean patch phase and revealed that MS Dhoni was the only person apart from his friends and family who genuinely reached out to him and stood by his side during that period.
New Delhi: Virat Kohli had to go through a tough 2020-22 session, where he consistently failed to churn out runs for India at the international stage. This also forced him to take a time-off for one month. He got his mojo back in September 2022 with an emphatic hundred against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. After that he smashed three ODI centuries in the bilateral series to take his international century count to 74.
In a recent interaction on the RCB Podcast, Kohli opened up on his lean-patch phase and revealed that MS Dhoni was the only person apart from his friends and family who genuinely reached out to him and stood by his side during that period.
“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.
“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”, the ex India captain revealed.
Kohli said that on normal days, Dhoni would hardly pick up the call but when MS actually reached out to him, the CSK captain said, ‘when you are expected to be strong and looked at as a strong individual people forget to ask how are you doing?’.
“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?’”, Kohli shared.
The RCB man further explained that Dhoni’s words hit him hard as he has always been looked at a person who is confident, mentally strong and at that time he had to take a couple of steps backwards to recover.
”So, it (Dhoni’s words) hit home for me because I have always been looked at as someone who is very confident, mentally very strong, who can endure any circumstances and find a way and show us the way. Sometimes, what you realise is that at any given point of time in life as a human being you need to take a couple of steps backwards, understand how you are doing, how your well being is placed”, he told.
Virat also said that Dhoni himself has gone through that phase so he actually knows how a person feel.
“So, there are not many places, for the people who have played the game for a long period, as strong individuals, they can go and explain in a way that the other person can understand. That’s why I mentioned this particular incident because MS Dhoni knows exactly what is going on, he understands it because he has been there himself”.
“He has experienced what I have experienced right now. So, it is only out of experience, and feeling those feelings in that moment is the only way you can be truly compassionate and understanding towards another individual who is going through the same thing”, he concluded.
