Would like Mahendra Singh Dhoni to bat higher up the order: Virat Kohli

Mumbai: Newly appointed Team India captain Virat Kohli believes that his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni will thrive in his role without the pressure of leading the side.

Dhoni relinquished his limited overs captaincy of the Indian team earlier this week, leaving natural successor and the then Test skipper Kohli to take over as the captain across all three formats of the game.

The 28-year-old revealed in an interview with BCCI.tv, that he will use Dhoni’s advice as much as possible, on the pitch.

“It’s a win-win situation for the new captain coming in, still having that guy for his advice, for his inputs, for the cricketing brain purely that he has,” said Kohli. “On the field, obviously I will be running to him quite a lot. Even now, when he was captaining, we would always have discussions and come to a conclusion.”

Kohli believes that we may now see the aggressive side of Dhoni, that we saw during the early stages of his career, once again, now that the 35-year-old does not have the burden of leading the side.

“But what I’m really happy about is the fact that he will be able to play free cricket,” he said. “He will be able to express himself as the aggressive MS Dhoni that we knew when he came into the team.

“Somewhere as a player, you understand that responsibility can take that away from you,” continued Kohli. “I think its time he enjoys his cricket for how much ever time he wants, and really express himself, because he has taken so much burden for the country.”

The India captain believes his predecessor would not have any problem with coming out to bat any position in the batting lineup.

“About the batting bit, if I ask him where he wants to bat, I know what kind of a person he is. He’ll tell me ‘wherever you want me to bat’,” said Kohli.

However, Kohli himself believes that Dhoni would do well if he were used as a upper or middle-order batsman in ODI and T20I cricket.

“I know he is like that, but I would love to see him bat higher-up and totally enjoy his cricket. If MS Dhoni enjoys his cricket, and plays the way he has in his initial years, the team is in a very solid space,” Kohli said.

“His cricket ability, understanding of the game, understanding of situations is priceless,” he continued. “To have this burden off his shoulders, I think he is going to enjoy the best phase of his career as a batsman. And he will be able to enjoy his cricket far more, without the burden of being under the scanner all the time.”