'Thank you for the moments skip': Kohli lauds Dhoni for selfless acts within 22 yards
Aug 16, 2020
New Delhi [India], Aug 16 : While the world is celebrating several achievements MS Dhoni bagged in his 16-year-long career, Virat Kohli celebrates the man behind it all. Tipping his hat to the former skipper, the current captain on Sunday highlighted as to how Dhoni, besides being a remarkable batsman, has always been selfless on the cricket field.
Kohli shared a 1:10 minute-long video on Instagram, in which Dhoni's dedication towards his team is for all to see and applaud.
"Thank you for these moments skip. I couldn't explain the mutual trust, respect, and understanding we share better than these two videos I'm posting here today. The first one explains perfectly well who he is, selfless in the most intense moments. The second one is about the kind of trust & chemistry we had over the years while batting together. In this moment I was only focused on his call & I knew we both would be able to make those 2 runs because of the trust we shared in one another. He called & I put my head down and ran," Kohli wrote as the caption.
"Mutual respect and understanding isn't a thing of chance, it develops naturally when two individuals are aligned & have the same vision and for us, that vision was always to make India win! Thank you for all these memories skip," he added.
The first video was from the 2014 T20 World Cup semi-final between India and South Africa, where Kohli had played a match-winning knock. Dhoni had the chance of hitting the winning runs, but he blocked the final delivery of the 19th over and asked Kohli to finish the match off.
Kohli had then smashed the ball for a boundary on the first over the final over, as India registered victory by six wickets and Kohli remained unbeaten on 72 runs.
In another video, Kohli shared a clip from the virtual knockout match between India and Australia in the 2016 T20 World Cup, and he highlighted as to how Dhoni never refused the call of his partner when in search of quick runs.
The great camaraderie between the duo was clearly visible while they ran between the wickets and the two had guided India to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in 2016.
On Saturday, Dhoni had announced his retirement on Instagram. The wicket-keeper-batsman Dhoni shared a video and captioned the post, "Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired."
The video had the iconic song 'Mai Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hu' from Amitabh Bachchan's 'Kabhie Kabhie' playing in the background and in it, Dhoni shared his incredible journey of playing for India including his run out in the last game against New Zealand in the World Cup 2019 semifinal.
He is among the most successful captains in world cricket. It was under his leadership that India lifted the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after having led India to triumph in the ICC World T20 in its maiden edition of the tournament held in 2007 in South Africa.
With India winning the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England, Dhoni became the first and is still the only captain to date to have won all three ICC Trophies.
While his heroics in the limited-overs formats are well documented, it was also under his leadership that India became the number one Test side in 2009 and the team stayed at the top for over 600 days.
He has led India to victory in 21 home Test matches, the most by an Indian captain. Leaving behind a rich legacy that will be difficult to replicate, Dhoni holds the record for most international matches as captain (332).
Unarguably the quickest man behind the wickets, Dhoni has 195 international stumpings, the most by any wicket-keeper. Dhoni played 350 ODIs with his highest score being 183 against Sri Lanka.
Also referred to as 'Captain Cool', Dhoni is known for his calmness and exquisite captaincy on the field. He was also known for his knack of opting for reviews and many have jokingly remarked to change the 'Decision-Review System's' name to 'Dhoni-Review System'.
In December 2014, he announced his retirement from Tests and gave a chance to the likes of Wriddhiman Saha. Dhoni called time on his Test career after playing 90 Tests, managing to score 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09.
Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 during the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament will now be played in the UAE from September 19 to November 10. He will continue to captain CSK in the IPL 2020.
