Virat Kohli says winning MS Dhoni's trust helped him get India captaincy

Batting star says he is enjoying the pressure that comes with leading the team

Virat Kohli is India's all-format captain and main batsman. AFP

India captain Virat Kohli believes he got the top job largely because his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni had faith in his abilities to read match situations correctly.

Kohli, 31, replaced Dhoni as Test captain in 2014-15 and took over the limited-overs reins in 2017, becoming India's all-format leader.

Fielding in the slips, Kohli had constant access to wicketkeeper Dhoni and he felt their chats in between deliveries earned him the trust of the former skipper.

"You start talking to the captain regularly," Kohli told team mate Ravichandran Ashwin in a chat on YouTube.

"I was always in MS's ear, standing next to him and saying 'We can do this, we can do that, what do you think?'.

"He would deny a lot of things but he would discuss a lot of things as well. I think he got a lot of confidence that I can do this after him.

"A large portion of me becoming captain was to do with him observing me for a long period of time. It just can't happen that he goes and the selectors say, 'Okay you become captain'."

Leading the Indian team is one of the toughest jobs in sports but Kohli said he is enjoying the responsibility.

"I looked at it this way – if I'm getting this opportunity, I need to work as hard as I can, because not many people get this chance," said Kohli.

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Stars and their cars

Kohli led India to the top of the world Test rankings in October 2016 where they remained until Australia replaced them this month. India lost in the semi-finals of last year's one-day World Cup in England.

"I was always inclined to taking responsibility (but) becoming captain of India was not even in my wildest dreams to be honest," Kohli said.

The premier batsman said the Australia tour of 2011-12 is where he took his game to the next  level. While the team fared miserably on the field, losing the Test series 4-0 and failing to reach to subsequent tri-series final, Kohli hit a couple of memorable knocks – his maiden Test ton in Adelaide and a whirlwind 133 not out off just 86 balls against Sri Lanka in the tri-series in Hobart.

"I remember that whole season," Kohli said. "It was from that Test hundred in Adelaide to continuously stringing scores. That was a phase of six to eight months where I really realised a lot about my own game and came into my own as far as my skills were concerned.

"I was very competitive but I wasn't very sure or in control of what I wanted to do before. When you come in new, you're still figuring out how to go about it. At the international stage you want to be feared, you want to be respected. You don't want to walk in and hear, 'He's one of the youngsters, we'll just knock him over.' We all play for that. That was a phase where I started to realise this."