Internet Desk: India skipper Virat Kohli showed his full support to former Indian captain MS Dhoni hours before his 36th birthday by saying that Dhoni knows how to play in pressure situation and his adaptability to build an innings is just a treat to watch. Kohli’s support to his predecessor comes on that time when the cricket pundits have started questing on Dhoni’s ability of finishing the game.
“He is striking the ball beautifully, you don’t need to tell him anything in terms of how to play a situation, how to build an innings,” Kohli said of Dhoni after India wrapped up the five-match ODI series in the West Indies 3-1.
In the third ODI Dhoni played a match winning knock of 78 runs, but failed to take his team home in the fouth ODI against the Windies where he scored 54 runs off 114 deliveries, which doesn’t match with his explosive batting career.
Kohli defended the former skipper he replaced in all three formats.
When a scribe told Dhoni was not his usual self at one of the nets, Kohli responded, “You have to figure out what kind of wickets you are playing on as well. I was trying to hit the spinners a couple of days in practice and I couldn’t because the wickets were not that great to play strokes, the wicket in the centre was much better.
“You can’t really judge a guy’s batting form at practice because you don’t know what kind of wickets you are going to get.”
Kohli used a bit of the game’s nuances as way of explanation.
“If the bounce is not ideal then obviously you have to keep defending the ball and keep rotating strike. I think it was only in the last game he couldn’t rotate the strike and before that he got a brilliant 70 or 80 odd not out.”