Before the start of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Gautam Gambhir took a huge dig at Virat Kohli’s captaincy. Gambhir had said that Kohli’s tactics as a skipper weren’t worth winning a game for the team while also stating that the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper should feel lucky that franchise has persisted with him and Kohli has done almost nothing to prove Gambhir wrong. The RCB has lost all the four games so far and they are lingering at the bottom of the table.

Royal Challengers’ consistent struggles despite having some of the biggest names in world cricket in the squad have raised questions on Kohli and his captaincy. In fact, before the IPL, Kohli had also lost the three ODIs against Australia at home. However, one also needs to consider the fact that all these losses were that he was without his illustrious predecessor MS Dhoni by his team. Dhoni was rested for the final two ODIs against Australia and currently, he is leading the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who have won all of their four games so far.

It is now a very well established fact that Virat relies a lot on Dhoni while taking decisions. And his constant struggles in IPL proves the theory right. A source in the Indian team management has now said that Kohli expresses himself better when he has Dhoni around him. 

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As per the reports in Latestly, their one of the sources said, “Let us not read too much into T20 games, but the thing is that when you have someone like Dhoni around, you can be yourself. Dhoni helps Kohli make decisions and also guides the bowlers like you would have seen time and again. Youngsters like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal feel at home when they have Dhoni guiding them from behind the wicket. That is why Dhoni is such an integral member of the Indian ODI set-up.”

He further added, “Kohli can also focus on his batting when Dhoni is around. See his scores in the last seven games that you are mentioning. Dhoni was there is Ranchi and Kohli scored 123. After that, the scores read 7, 20, 6, 46, 3 and 23. It always helps when you have a senior member in the team to guide you with his experience.”

The BCCI official asserted that Dhoni gives the team the much-needed balance. He also said that the former Indian skipper is still integral to the team’s success despite the criticism he has faced in recent past. The official went on to say that Dhoni’s presence is of utmost importance if India are eyeing the World Cup this summer.