5 decisions by Dhoni and Ganguly that changed the fate of Indian cricket

#4. Dhoni backing Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni

The flamboyant Virat Kohli came into the limelight when the India U19 team won the World Cup under his leadership. He was immediately drafted into the Indian ODI set-up, but was not converting his starts into big scores at the start.

Kohli managed to score only three half-centuries in his first 13 Test innings and three half-centuries in his first 13 ODI innings. However, he was backed relentlessly by MS Dhoni.

Kohli himself confirmed this when Dhoni announced his retirement from captaincy in 2017 as he said:

"He (Dhoni) will always be the person who guided me initially and gave me opportunities. He gave me ample time and space to grow as a cricketer, saved me from getting dropped from the team many times."

Kohli’s success in international cricket is evident to everyone. He has become one of the most prolific international cricketers India has ever produced, having already scored 60+ international centuries to go along with 19000+ international runs.