Former Cricketer Recalls How Dhoni Backed Kohli When He Was On Verge Of Being Dropped

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar recalled the time when then-captain MS Dhoni backed a young Virat Kohli, who was on the verge of being dropped from the Test side. Manjrekar’s comments have come ahead of the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Test series between India and Australia, starting Thursday.

Kohli made his Test debut in 2011, three years after playing his maiden One-Day International (ODI). The current joint World No. 2, Kohli, had a poor start to his career in the whites as he managed only 76 runs from his first three Tests against the West Indies. He was not picked for India's subsequent tour that was in England but returned to the Indian squad for the home series against the Windies, where he scored two half-centuries in the only game he played.

The selection committee included Kohli in the Indian squad that was shortlisted for the 2011-12 Australia tour. In the four innings across the Melbourne and Sydney Test, Kohli’s scores read as 11,0, 23, and 9.

Ahead of the upcoming first Test between India and Australia in Adelaide, Manjrekar said, following the first two Tests on the 2011-12 tour, Kohli would have been dropped had Dhoni not shown faith in the Delhi batsman. Justifying his skipper’s belief in him, Kohli scored a 44 and 77 in Perth before registering his maiden hundred at the Adelaide Oval in the final Test of the tour.

"Virat Kohli is Virat Kohli. He always finds ways to score runs. The hundred that he scored in the 2011-12 series, India lost it 0-4. They’d lost to England 0-4. And I think that was the only century scored by an Indian in that series. He was a young man who actually was on the verge of getting dropped after Sydney. Dhoni backed him; he played in Perth scored a 70 and then he got that hundred," Manjrekar was quoted by Cricket Next, as saying in an interview.

Even though India suffered a 4-0 whitewash on the 2011-12 tour, Kohli’s century came out to be a huge positive for the visitors. In fact, Kohli was the only Indian to have scored a hundred on the tour and that was the beginning of his love affair with Adelaide Oval. Two years later, in 2014, while captaining India in the absence of Dhoni, Kohli hit twin centuries at the same venue. Once again, India suffered a series loss, but Kohli had recorded 692 runs, including four centuries.

With the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar series kicking-off Thursday, Team India will hope Kohli rekindles his love affair with Adelaide Oval. Kohli, who has been granted paternity leave by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will return to India after the first Test.

"Now at Adelaide, a lot of Indian batsmen have got runs. It’s a pitch closer to home. It’s got pace but the bouncer comes around this high (Pointing to his chest). It’s like an Indian pitch, but because it’s day-night and there’s going to be the pink ball, that changes things completely. The thing with Virat Kohli is that later, in 2014/15, he hit four hundred," Manjrekar added.