Former Team India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has uncovered how MS Dhoni merits a great deal of credit for placing confidence in Virat Kohli during his poor beginning to his profession.
Kohli played his first Test arrangement for India in 2014, against a deadly England side and battled to feature his ability in the longest format of the game.
The right-gave batsman neglected to adjust to the England pacers and figured out how to score just 134 runs in 10 innings with James Anderson dismissing him multiple times in the series.
Notwithstanding the entirety of this, the then Team India captain MS Dhoni stayed with Kohli and put stock in his capacity and quality.
According to Gambhir, that series would have been the finish of Kohli’s Test profession yet because of Dhoni, the now Indian skipper got another chance.
“I agree with Laxman Bhai. The sort of series it was in 2014, even I was there on that tour,” Gambhir said.
“You have to give credit to MS Dhoni because a lot of careers have ended after such a series, especially in one format.”
“But he gave that kind of security to Virat Kohli plus his eagerness,” he added.
Watch Virat Kohli maiden Ton Against England
Virat did return the favour to Dhoni and scored 692 runs in eight innings against Australia the following year. Kohli has scored 7240 runs in 86 Tests and is already the sixth-highest run-getter for India in the longest format of the game.
The Indian skipper has so far smashed seven double-centuries – the most by an Indian cricketer – with an average of 53.62.
Virat Kohli Batting and Fielding Stats :
| M | I | N/O | R | HS | 100’s | 50’s | 4s | 6s | Avg | S/R | Ct | St | |
| Test | 86 | 145 | 10 | 7240 | 254* v SA | 27 | 22 | 811 | 22 | 53.62 | 57.68 | 82 | 0 |
| ODI | 248 | 239 | 39 | 11867 | 183 v PAK | 43 | 58 | 1116 | 121 | 59.33 | 93.25 | 128 | 0 |
| World Cup | 26 | 26 | 4 | 1030 | 107 v PAK | 2 | 6 | 91 | 5 | 46.81 | 86.7 | 14 | 0 |
| T20I | 82 | 76 | 21 | 2794 | 94* v WI | 0 | 24 | 258 | 76 | 50.8 | 138.24 | 41 | 0 |
| IPL | 177 | 169 | 26 | 5412 | 113 v KXIP | 5 | 36 | 480 | 190 | 37.84 | 131.61 | 73 | 0 |
| CL | 15 | 14 | 3 | 424 | 84* v NSW | 0 | 2 | 45 | 14 | 38.54 | 150.35 | 10 | 0 |
Virat Kohli Bowling Stats :
| I | O | M | R | W | Best | 3w | 5w | Avg | E/R | S/R | |
| Test | 11 | 29.1 | 2 | 84 | 0 | 0/0 v SA | 0 | 0 | – | 2.88 | – |
| ODI | 48 | 106.5 | 1 | 665 | 4 | 1/15 v SA | 0 | 0 | 166.25 | 6.22 | 160.25 |
| World Cup | 3 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0/6 v SL | 0 | 0 | – | 6.33 | – |
| T20I | 12 | 24.2 | 0 | 198 | 4 | 1/13 v ENG | 0 | 0 | 49.5 | 8.13 | 36.5 |
| IPL | 26 | 41.5 | 0 | 368 | 4 | 2/25 v DCH | 0 | 0 | 92 | 8.79 | 62.75 |
| CL | 6 | 9.3 | 0 | 95 | 0 | 0/9 v SOM | 0 | 0 | – | 10 | – |
