Former chief selector of Team India, Dilip Vengsarkar, talking at an event, made an astonishing revelation that former team India skipper, MS Dhoni was against the inclusion of the current captain of the team, fiery batsman Virat Kohli, in 2008. Vengsarkar proclaimed that having seen his smashing performance, he was insistent about getting Kohli to play for the national team, howbeit, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gary Kirsten weren’t very happy about this decision of his, and wanted to continue with the same team they had. Dhoni did not wish to have Kohli in the team as he hadn’t seen him play before and was unsure about taking a chance with him.
Vengsarkar said, “Me and my colleagues decided that we will take the U-23 boys and at that time we had won the U-19 World Cup, Virat Kohli was the U-19 captain and I selected him in the team. He (Kohli) was technically sound and I thought he should be played. We were going to Sri Lanka and I felt that this is the ideal situation that he should be in the team. My four colleagues said ‘As you say Dilip Bhai’. “
The selection of Virat Kohli had ignited arguments between Vengsarkar and N Srinivasan, the then President of BCCI, as the latter was in favour of including Subramanian Badrinath in the national team of India, who represented the Tamil Nadu team in the Ranji Trophy and had played a magnificent game scoring over 800 runs at that time, and so was Dhoni who also believed he was the one to get the opportunity.
Virat Kohli got a break in the Indian Team in 2008 on team India’s Sri Lanka tour. Since then, Kohli has played some terrific matches for the team and contributed in the betterment of the team’s glory immensely. He and Dhoni have a very strong relationship and Virat lauds his former captain for his work as a captain and a wonderful player.
