Virat Kohli talks about his nickname ‘Cheeku’ and how MS Dhoni made it popular

Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni share a very strong bond on and off the field, something that has made the captaincy transition very smooth for Indian cricket. When MS Dhoni gave up the ODI captaincy, a lot of people felt that it could be the end of ‘Dhoni- The cricketer’, but Dhoni has hung around, and has contributed in more ways than one towards the development of Indian cricket and ‘Virat Kohli- The captain’.

Last night Kohli was involved in a talk show with Aamir Khan and shared some very candid moments about his career and life.

When asked about his nickname ‘Cheeku’, Virat Kohli went down memory lane to talk about his Under 17 days when he had got a short haircut and his ears were bulging out, resulting in his team mates calling him Cheeku, something that has lingered on ever since.

Kohli also said that MS Dhoni was largely responsible for it to have made it to the public, as he kept on calling him that whenever he was bowling and the stump mic caught it all.

Aamir Khan who was listening to all of this with so much interest, threw in comments about his favourite Virat Kohli inning, which surprisingly was Kohli’s 35 during the 2011 World Cup final, as it came just after the fall of Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket.

Sachin was having a dream 2011 World Cup but fell to Malinga while going for an expansive cover drive. The whole of India including Aamir felt that India was about to go down, but Virat and Gambhir steadied the ship in what proved to be one of the most important innings of Virat’s career.

Virat confessed that when Sachin fell, he too felt that it wasn’t India’s day and feared Malinga unleashing those unplayable yorkers from the word go. But the nerves calmed down after the initial few deliveries and Virat could play that vital knock of 30 odd runs.

KL Rahul had sent in a pre-recorded video for the show, discussing about the good and bad points of Kohli’s personality.

India are currently preparing for the T20 series against Australia, which begins on the 7th of October in Ranchi.