Sanjay Manjrekar reveals how MS Dhoni backed young Virat Kohli back in 2011-12 Australia series

MS Dhoni developed himself as a great wicketkeeper-batsman, finisher, and on top of all, a legendary skipper. He has each and every ICC trophy under his bag that a skipper can boast of. Also, he has played an instrumental role in shaping the career of certain cricketers like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, and many more. Virat Kohli was up with India for the Australia tour back in 2011-12.

The Indian side has a horrible outing as they were whitewashed 0-4 in the Tests. However, there were few shining aspects of the game, and it was in the form of developing talent Virat Kohli. Kohli had impressed with his bat in the limited over series but he was yet to make a mark in the longest format of the game. Despite Kohli’s 11,0,23,9, MS Dhoni backed him for the remaining two Tests as he was just about to be dropped.

Talking of the same incident, former cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar stated that it was Dhoni’s great mind that saw potential in Kohli and hence, backed him. Kohli ended the series with 44, 75, and his maiden Test century in Adelaide on the same tour.

He was a young man who was about to get dropped after Sydney but MS Dhoni backed him: Manjrekar

“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,” said Manjrekar while speaking on Sony Sports Network.

“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 hundreds,” Manjrekar concluded.