"He was on the verge of getting dropped" - When Sanjay Manjrekar opened up on how MS Dhoni backed a young Virat Kohli
Team India's senior batter Virat Kohli had a tough start to his Test career. While he made his white-ball debut in 2008, the former India captain had to wait unit 2011 to get a chance in the red-ball squad. He made his debut against the West Indies in an away series but failed to make an impact.
The youngster managed a couple of half-centuries in a home Test against West Indies and was subsequently picked for the 2011-12 tour of Australia. Kohli, though, made a torrid start to the tour, registering scores of 11, 0, 23 and 9 in the first two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney respectively.
The struggling batter was set to the dropped from the playing XI for the next Test in Perth, but Indian captain MS Dhoni backed him. The rest, as they say is history. The 36-year-old contributed 44 and 75 in Perth and notched up his maiden Test century (116) in the last match of the series in Adelaide.
Going down memory lane, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar told Sony Sports (as quoted by www.royalchallengers.com):
“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."
Sharing his thoughts on Kohli's maiden Test ton in Adelaide, Manjrekar said:
“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."
The swashbuckling batsman has a tremendous Test record Down Under. In 15 matches in Australia, he has 1,475 runs at an average of 52.67, with seven hundreds and four fifties.
Virat Kohli's mixed results in BGT 2024-25
Kohli has had a mixed time in the ongoing 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was dismissed for five in the first innings in Perth but followed up with an unbeaten 100 in the second essay.
The former India captain was out for seven and 11 in the Adelaide Test. The senior batter will be keen to made amends in the third Test at The Gabba.