New Delhi: Their bonding has become stronger with the passage of time and skipper Virat Kohli is proud of the fact that no external force has been able to affect his friendship with predecessor MS Dhoni.
“A lot of people try to plug in stories of rift between us. The best part is neither he reads those articles nor do I. And when the people see us together, they wonder ‘wasn’t there rift between the two’. We laugh amongst ourselves and say we didn’t know there was one,” Kohli said during an episode of web-series ‘Breakfast with Champions’.
“Lot of people don’t know but he has childlike enthusiasm. He gets intrigued by things easily and is always looking for something new that will interest him,” Kohli said.
Kohli recalled a funny anecdote from his younger days which he had shared with Dhoni and how he literally burst out laughing. “I once told him a funny story of my U-17 days.
“It was my academy’s match. There was this new boy and I threw the ball at him and asked ‘kahaan se’ (meaning from which end will you bowl). The boy answered: ‘Bhaiya Najafgarh se’!
When I recollected this incident and told MS about it, he started laughing and this was happening as the match was on,” Kohli said.
Kohli may be calling the shots now but his reverence for Dhoni is there to be seen. “I don’t think I have ever come across a better cricketing brain just in terms of planning, knowing what’s happening in the game and what can be done. Obviously, I go by my instincts but whenever I ask him anything eight or nine out of 10 times what he says, works. Our friendship has only grown over the years,” Kohli said.
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