5 Indian players who enjoy a lot of backing from skipper Virat Kohli

2. MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni started off with a century under Kohli in his first series as full-time ODI captain against England. However, he has failed to maintain the same tempo. In fact, it seems as if the veteran is turning out to be a burden for the team in recent times with his batting.

But, Virat has lent full support to Dhoni despite the hard times and failures. The wicketkeeper-batsman has scored 1,144 runs in 39 international innings while playing under the 29-year-old. Although the stats suggest that he averages 58 in ODIs and 40 in T20Is, they don’t reveal the complete story. The former captain has been highly inconsistent and the case has only worsened in the last few months.

Against Australia in 2017, Dhoni only scored 113 runs in 5 international innings. Then, he failed against the Blackcaps as well where he scored 124 in 6 innings in the same year. But then, he came good against the Lankans with 226 runs in 6 innings and was dismissed only once. Again, he had a decent time in South Africa but failed in England. It will be interesting to see how long Kohli will persist with him with all this inconsistency and fading big hitting abilities.