'Most enjoyable period of my career': Kohli breaks internet with heartwarming tribute post for Dhoni

Virat Kohli is gearing up for the Asia Cup but he seemed to stop for an emotional moment on Thursday while playing with some numbers. The former India captain, who recently celebrated his 14th year in international cricket, made a social media post in which he spoke about the "most enjoyable and exciting period" of his career. Kohli said that this was the time he spent as deputy to MS Dhoni in the Indian team.

The 33-year-old star batter was a long-time vice-captain to Dhoni in all formats before taking over as Test skipper in 2014 and the overall captaincy in 2017. "Being this man's trusted deputy was the most enjoyable and exciting period in my career. Our partnerships would always be special to me forever. 7+18," said Kohli in the post with a photo of him raising his bat with Dhoni in the background during a match. The "7+18" refers to Dhoni's jersey No.7 and Kohli's No.18, which added up comes to 25, the date on Thursday.

Kohli and Dhoni have shared a number of memorable partnerships during their time together in international colours. The picture he shared is from the 2016 T20 World Cup game against Australia in Mohali, where Kohli had famously scored an incredible unbeaten 82 off just 51 deliveries to take India to a six-wicket victory.

Kohli is looking to regain the kind of form that led to him being recognised as the best batter in the world accross formats, especially between 2016 and 2019. He has scored 27 Test centuries and 43 ODI tons but hasn't reached the three figure mark since November 2019. Moreover, Kohli's plummeting strike rate in T20 cricket has led to questions over whether he should be included in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup later this year.

It makes it all the more important for Kohli to find some form in the Asia Cup, which will be played in the T20 format. India's campaign starts on Sunday with a match against arch-rivals Pakistan.