Kohli hails mentor Dhoni

Virat Kohli on Saturday hailed M.S. Dhoni as an "inspiration" who had a "huge impact" on his cricketing journey as the India captain goes in search of the Twenty20 World Cup title.

Dhoni, who on Friday led Chennai Super Kings to their fourth IPL crown, captained India to the T20 world title in 2007.But a World Cup win still awaits Kohli who will step down as the national T20 skipper after the 2021 tournament which gets underway on Sunday. The star batsman, who took over the leadership role across all formats from Dhoni in 2017, said the former captain's presence in the dressing room as team mentor will inspire an already confident unit. "He has always been a mentor for all of us when we were starting our careers through till the time we played with the team and now has an opportunity to continue to do that same work again," Kohli told reporters.